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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24157408">Feels like I've loved you from a long time ago</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shineefive/pseuds/shineefive'>shineefive</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Konoha 12 - Freeform, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, May be a little OOC, This will mostly be about the interactions between them, but since i love all the relationships I decided to add some here, not SO much about the love side</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:16:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,910</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24157408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shineefive/pseuds/shineefive</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The konoha 12 + a few extra friends go to college!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gaara/Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten, Inuzuka Kiba/Kankurou, Nara Shikamaru/Temari, Sai/Yamanaka Ino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. When I'm not a kid or an adult, when I’m just me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! This is my first work so please be nice to me.<br/>I was re-watching Naruto when this came to mind, since I love college/university AUs.<br/>English is not my first language, i'm sorry if you find any mistakes, feel free to comment.</p><p>About this work, well I love the konoha 13 + the sand siblings, love their friendship and since they didnt explore it that much in the anime, i decided to make my own little world.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>“When I'm not a kid or an adult, when I’m just me<br/>
I shine the brightest<br/>
So don’t get scared when the darkness comes”</em><br/>
<strong>Palette ꟷ IU Ft. G-Dragon</strong>
  </p>
</blockquote><p><br/>
When Temari decided to study medicine she didn’t take into account that she would have to move to a whole different city, and its not like she was mad about it, she liked the fact that she was able to start again, leave behind everything she hated about Suna, about her family and about her stupid high school experience, but of course there was stuff she would miss, like her two brothers; Kankuro and Gaara made her happy, they were her rock and motivation, so living without them for a year would be hard.</p><p>The fact that she didn’t know a single person in this new city was another thing, she was good at making friends, or so she liked to think, but she was also kind of harsh, maybe that’s why high school had been kind of hard for her, people would often avoid her thinking she was rude, so she had like three friends there, they were good but if they were not around she would often feel let out and alone. But that was about to change, she was a new person ready to take over the world.</p><p>Her first year was fine, she shared some classes with nursing, veterinary and psychology students so she met a lot of people, sadly most of them where from Konoha and already had friends they would hang out with instead of her, and although they did invite her, she never liked them enough to stick around. So, she spent most of her first year trapped in the library the school had, learning stuff they didn’t teach in class and doing homework and prepping presentations and studying for midterms (which she aced).</p><p>Second year was the one everything changed. Thankfully it was for the better.</p><p>When she came back to school after spending the whole summer in Suna her brothers came with her, it was time for them to start college after all. Their father bought a nice house for the three of them so she didn’t have to sleep in the dorms anymore, which was nice, and also she had her brothers here after a year of being apart so it was natural to think that this was it, this year she would stop being a bitch about her friends’ friends and actually try to get to know them and maybe choose a group to hang out with.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Everything is different at this moment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I decided to upload this one since it was already finished. Enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
  <em>“I'm feeling good<br/>
  You and me again, like the first time we met<br/>
  I'm feeling cool<br/>
  Everything is different at this moment”</em><br/>
  <strong>Holiday – Girls’ Generation</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>“That’s it, I’m calling this thing off” Shikamaru was not a bad friend, or so he liked to think, but there was only so much he could wait before getting angry at people for being late when they had a whole schedule planned.</p>
<p>“What??? Shikamaru you can’t do that”</p>
<p>“Course I can, this is my house Naruto” the blond looked at him like those words didn’t make sense.</p>
<p>“Well yes, but most of us are already here, look, Kiba and Shino just arrived, also we are not even going to be here” Naruto waved at the car that was parking at the other side of the street.</p>
<p>“Naruto you are the only one here, and that’s only because you live two houses away”</p>
<p>Shino and Kiba were getting out of the car, carrying folding chairs and a chest cooler, probably full of beer, they also wore identical smiles. A big dog trailed behind them, with a big ball in his mouth. Kiba was wearing shorts and an open t-shirt, while Shino wore his signature cargo pants with a white t-shirt.</p>
<p>“What’s up ladies” Kiba said as he put down the stuff he was carrying, stretching his arms. The dog sat at his feet, moving his tail happily.</p>
<p>“Are we the first ones to get here??”</p>
<p>“Yes, Shino, it’s been 20 minutes and you are the only ones here, I was thinking of cancelling actually, have better things to do than waiting for you all to get your lazy asses here” He knew he was being a hypocrite, being a lazy person himself, but he had to use the opportunity to wine about them just like they tend to do about him.</p>
<p>“Shikamaru, quit whining” Said Naruto while rolling his eyes. “They are probably close; you know most of them life far from here. And you are only being a bitch cause you wanted to stay home and whine about that ex-girlfriend of yours like you have been doing for weeks now”</p>
<p>“First of all, we all live within ten minutes walking, and second of all I don’t care, we set a time for everyone to be here, if we keep going like this we are going to get to the beach by sunset. Also, I stopped whining about her three weeks ago” That wasn’t actually true, he still whined about her when no one was around.</p>
<p>Kiba looked like he was about to respond when a car entered the street playing music at full volume, a blond girl with half her body out of the car was singing trough the sunroof and three more were following her, like normal people, sitting inside the car. They stopped when a pink haired girl parked the car in front of Shikamaru’s house. The dog dropped his ball and went running to the car, tongue out and a smile on his face.</p>
<p>“Akamaru! Omg I missed you so much” said the blonde one, patting the dog before hurrying to catch up to them. “Hi boys! Sorry for the delay we stopped for some beer and snacks”</p>
<p>“About damn time you got here Ino, we’ve been waiting for half an hour”</p>
<p>“Shut up Kiba, we saw you when we stopped at the gas station”</p>
<p>“Hi guys” Said Hinata while walking to them, Tenten and Sakura a few steps behind her.</p>
<p>“Are you all ready? We should be leaving if we want to catch up with the others by 3” Sakura was getting sunscreen out of her backpack while speaking. When she finally found it, she passed it to Naruto “Put some on and pass it to Kiba, I can trust Shino and Shikamaru being responsible with their bodies but not you two”</p>
<p>Naruto rolled his eyes but did as he was told “Yes, mom”</p>
<p>“I still can’t believe those three went to the gym today, its fucking sunday” said Tenten while typing on her phone, probably texting Neji and Lee.</p>
<p>“Well, they sure know how to take the fun out of the last day of vacation” said Shikamaru, while suppressing a yawn “Let me get Chouji so we can get going” he walked to the house and opened the door “Chouji! We are leaving”</p>
<p>A voice came from the kitchen “I’m coming” steps could be heard from where Shikamaru was standing. A few seconds later an overweighed man stepped out of the room carrying a chest cooler, probably full of food, like it was nothing “I was finishing up the food for the day, not to brag but it all tastes delicious” They both stepped out of the house “Hi guys! Got the food ready, shall we go?”</p>
<p>The group nodded and started walking to the blue school bus parked in the driveway of the house, Chouji opened the door and everyone hopped in, including the dog.</p>
<p>Chouji had a few hobbies, cooking being one of them (and also his job), but he also liked to restore cars with his dad, that was all he used to do while in Konoha, and as a graduation gift, his dad bought a small school bus from an auction and they spent the summer getting it ready for this kind of trips. They could easily fit in there and there was still plenty of room for the rest of their friends.</p>
<p>“Are they boys already there?” asked Sakura from the back of the bus.</p>
<p>“Sasuke texted saying they were almost there, stopped so Lee could buy some shorts since he forgot his” Naruto was sitting on top of a chest cooler since it was too big to fit in a seat and someone had to make sure it didn’t move while on the road.</p>
<p>“What? omg why is he buying clothes when you guys could have let him borrow yours”</p>
<p>“Something about he being too skinny to fit into any of our clothes may have been in the text and also Sasuke said Lee doesn’t trust Kiba going through his stuff while he isn’t there”</p>
<p>“I’m pretty offended!”</p>
<p>“You should be ashamed Kiba, last time Lee went home for the weekend you did go through his clothes claiming he took some shirt that you needed for a date” Shino said while keeping a straight face.</p>
<p>“In my defense I really thought he did”</p>
<p>“Yes, but you left a mess in his room and later we all found out you had actually left your shirt in the laundry basket”</p>
<p>Laughter could be heard trough the bus while Chouji started driving along the coast. The beach wasn’t actually that far away from Shikamaru’s house, a mere 30 mins drive, which was pretty calm if not all of them were traveling together.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. A neutron star collision</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Third chapter up! Let me know what you think :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
  <em>“I was searching<br/>
You were on a mission<br/>
Then our hearts combined like<br/>
A neutron star collision”</em><br/>
<strong>Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever) – Muse</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>Temari sat on the sand while watching her brothers play volleyball not too far away from her, they had decided to go to the beach and enjoy their last day of freedom before their brothers started college the next day. It was a nice day, there was barely any cloud in the sky and she was sweating, but it was nice, it reminded her of home.</p><p>Her brothers came back from playing and grabbed a couple of beers. “Don’t you wanna play, Temari?” asked the younger one, Gaara.</p><p>“No thanks, I’m going to stay here and take in all the vitamin D I can get before going back to hide in the library for the next four months”</p><p>“Please come, it's not really fun if I beat Gaara every time, he's not really good at volleyball” Kankuro was sweating “You are a decent player and will probably make me work for it”</p><p>Temari smiled but didn’t move from her spot, instead she took a sip from her beer and put her sunglasses on “Sorry kid, don’t want every man in this beach looking at the fabulous ass I’m carrying around”</p><p>Kankuro sat next to her while whining about how she was a bad sister. Then grabbed the bowl from the chest cooler “I suppose I’m going to eat ceviche before kicking your ass again, Gaara”</p><p>The little one sat on her other side and gestured to his brother to pass him the food. They ate in silence, enjoying the view of the waves hitting the sand before them. It really was a nice day.</p><p>“You know I love you, right?” she said, still looking at the sea.</p><p>“Of course, we do, you always make sure to say it at least once an hour” mocked Kakuro. In return, Temari hit him in the head. “Ouch! I was joking, you crazy woman”.</p><p>Before she could say anything, Gaara spoke “I love you too” both stopped what they were doing and turned back to him. “What?” he said.</p><p>“You never say you love us” answered Temari, looking at him with a smile on her face.</p><p>“I know I’m kind of serious, that doesn’t mean I don’t love you”</p><p>“Yeah well, it's nice to hear, and just because of that, I’m gonna say it too” Kankuro brushed his hair, then opened his mouth and proceeded to throw the rest of his beer on them while getting up and running away screaming “I love you guys!”</p><p>“I’m going to kill you Kankuro! You better not come back here if you want to live” Said Temari while using a towel to clean the beer out of her skin. She was also smiling.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>Kankuro kept running a few meters before stopping to catch some air. He wasn’t sure Temari would kill him, she had just said she loved him after all, but better safe than sorry. He never had trouble making friends, that’s why when he saw a group of people playing volleyball just a few steps away from him he decided to approach them.</p><p>“Hey! Mind if I join you?” the group stopped playing and turned to face him. They all were oddly good looking, and had nice bodies which made him think they were athletes about to reject his petition. Surprisingly they didn’t.</p><p>“Sure” answered the one closer to him, it was a boy with brown hair and feline eyes. “My name is Kiba” he reached out his hand and Kankuro took it, gave it a squeeze and let go.</p><p>“Kankuro, pleased to meet you”</p><p>“Likewise” he turned to his friends “This are my friends" his finger pointed a white man with long brown hair "Neji, looks like he could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll" next one was a blond dude with blue eyes, a big smile on his face "Naruto, looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you. And that one" he pointed at the farest guy, ball in his hand "the one with the murderous look? He's Sasuke, looks like he could kill you and could actually kill you. Lee is the one with the bowl cut, he looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll. And last but no least" his eyes went to the nearest person, a chubby guy with long hazelnut hair "Choji, could kill you by feeding you too many cinnamon rolls" he turned to smirk at him, got closer and mumbled, like it was a secret "and that one is actually true since he is a cook” His friends looked at him, annoyed.</p><p>“Kiba that’s not very youthful of you. Please ignore him, he tends to say stupid things when he finds someone attractive” said the guy with a bowl cut, Lee.</p><p>Kankuro smiled, a soft pink covering his face “I’m going to take that as a compliment” then turned to look at the rest of the group “So, which team do I play with?”</p><p>Once Kankuro joined Kiba and Lee the game started again, they were pretty good, which means they probably were, as he had thought, athletes. After three games they decided it was time to stop and went to meet their other friends, Kankuro decided to join them since his brothers hadn’t come looking for him, they were probably reading boring stuff.</p><p>They approached a large group of people drinking and eating a few meters away from them, the girls were sunbathing while the boys played what seemed to be shogi, he was only familiar with the game cause Gaara and Temari played all the time, he on the other hand, found it pretty boring.</p><p>“Finally got tired of running after a ball?” asked the girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail “Even Akamaru is sunbathing with us”</p><p>“Funny as always Ino” answered Sasuke.</p><p>“Who is your friend?” asked her, only now realizing they had company.</p><p>Kankuro took a step forward “Kankuro, nice to meet you all” said waving his hand around so everyone could see him “Was running away from my brothers when I came across these guys playing volleyball, decided to join instead of going back to my boring family”</p><p>“You are good, you play?” asked Naruto.</p><p>“Used to play in high school, was captain actually”</p><p>“Nice, we did too, never saw you at competitions though”</p><p>“Well my team wasn’t that good, and I’m from Suna so maybe that has something to do too”</p><p>“Hey that’s pretty far from here” gasped one of the girls, the one with pink hair “I’m Sakura, by the way”</p><p>“Yeah, came here to study, I start tomorrow”</p><p>“Really, where?” she put a hand over his forehead, trying to stop the sun from getting in her green eyes.</p><p>“Tokyo University”</p><p>“Hey, we all go there!” answered Naruto, looking excited “Well, tomorrow is my first day but you get what I mean”</p><p>“Really? All of you?”</p><p>“Yep, obviously different careers but is the same campus so we pretty much see each other every day” this time it was Kiba who answered, taking a chip from the bag Choji had managed to get his hands on as soon as they got to the tent.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>Shikamaru was good at shogi, if you could say that, he was actually more than good, he was the national champion, even though he hated when people brought that up. He was playing against Neji, out of all his friends he was the one who came closer to beating him, Shino after him, they also were the only people who liked to play with him, their other friends found it boring. The three of them liked to think only people with low IQ said that.</p><p>It had been a nice day, they ate sandwiches and hummus made by Choji, played some volleyball, the girls had a nice time chatting and getting their doses of vitamin D, as say by Sakura. It was a nice day before going back to university tomorrow.</p><p>His first semester had been fine, some of his classes were boring but a few were quite interesting, he also shared classes with Sasuke and Shino, so that was good too. Now Choji and Naruto were here too, so the whole gang was together again.</p><p>A year ago, Lee, Neji, Tenten and Sai left Konoha to study in Tokyo, they were the big ones of the group. Half a year later the rest of them, minus Choji and Naruto, followed them, and now the missing members of the group had finally arrived and everything felt right again. </p><p>Sasuke was eating hummus with chips when his phone started beeping, he reached for it in his pocket. He stared at it for a minute before speaking “Should we start packing? Sai just texted saying he’s getting home at six and needs someone to open the door for him since Naruto and I took his keys”</p><p>“Well is only five o’ clock, I think we can stay a few more minutes” answered Tenten, she was on her phone taking pictures of the rest of them. Ino and Sakura posing in front of her.</p><p>“Kankuro!” everyone grew quiet after the scream.</p><p>“Damn, someone sure has powerful lungs” laughed Kiba.</p><p>“And someone probably is in trouble” sighed Kankuro, getting up “someone being me”</p><p>A woman with short golden hair spotted him and began walking towards them “What the hell Kankuro, we have been calling you for fifteen minutes” she seemed mad.</p><p>He shrugged “I don’t have my phone, it's in my jacket”</p><p>“Yes, we deducted it after it vibrated the six times we called, thank you very much”</p><p>Kankuro rolled his eyes and turned to face the others “Everyone this is my sister, Temari, the boring one I told you about” she pinched his nipple in return.</p><p>“Sorry to interrupt but I have to get my stupid brother back to the car before our little brother leaves without us” she smiled before leaving, taking Kankuro with her.</p><p>“I like her” said Ino.</p><p>“You sure like any bossy woman you encounter” mumbled Shikamaru.</p><p>“I heard ya!” screamed Ino while throwing a chip at him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. But we’ve gotten more and more close to each other</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Next chapter! Since I don't have much to do while in quarantine is safe to say I'm going to be posting pretty often.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
  <em>“Maybe we didn’t realize it</em><br/>
<em>But we’ve gotten more and more close to each other</em><br/>
<em>and now we’re grown up”</em><br/>
<strong>Friend – BTOB</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>“Hinata!” a voice screamed behind her “Wait for us!” she stopped and turned around, Sakura, Ino and Kiba were walking towards her, backpacks and coffee in hand. Sakura wore her signature white lab coat with a pink outfit beneath, while Kiba was wearing green scrubs. Ino, on the other hand, wore a skirt with a yellow shirt. They stopped in front of her.</p><p>“We are going to grab something down in the cafeteria, you hungry?” asked the brown-haired boy.</p><p>“Sure” she answered, as they started to walk in the direction Hinata had been heading before they stopped her “How is your first day going guys?”</p><p>“Ugh, first day back and I already have like a hundred things to do, summer break always makes me forget how much I hate schoolwork” Ino started to speak.</p><p>“You always get perfect grades dude, why are you complaining” Kiba rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Well getting perfect grades doesn’t mean I don’t hate schoolwork”</p><p>“I agree on that one” said Hinata.</p><p>“You girls are weird”</p><p>“Why are you wearing your lab coat, Sakura? I though your clinical practices wouldn't start until two more weeks” asked Hinata, while passing through the door Kiba held open for them.</p><p>“Ugh, I have a professor that wants us to wear lab coat to classes, stethoscope and everything”</p><p>They threw their stuff in a table close to the counter and made their way there. Ino ordered a salad while the others grabbed paninis. Back in the table they ate in silence.</p><p>“Had my first open surgery today, I think I nailed it” Kiba was already halfway thru his panini.</p><p>“Really? That was fast, I thought you had to wait until fourth semester to operate dogs” answered Sakura.</p><p>“Yes, we do. It was actually a frog” answered Kiba, earning a laugh from the three girls “What?”</p><p>“Kiba, we used to do that in high school too”</p><p>“No, we didn’t”</p><p>“It’s true” said Ino “you were just too busy skipping classes with Naruto and Shikamaru to notice”</p><p>“That…” shrugged Kiba “may be true”</p><p>Hinata looked at her phone and turned red “Oh!” She gasped, then proceed to put her trash in the tray and grabbed her backpack “I forgot I had class, sorry guys, I will see you later” She left in a hurry.</p><p>“Is it just me or that was weird?” asked Ino, her eyes trailing after Hinata, who was on her way to the door.</p><p>Kiba hummed in response “Yep, that was definitely weird” he took a sip of his lemonade “Haven’t seen her so red since you made her go to the psychologist”</p><p>“You think she was lying?”</p><p>“Oh, she was lying” answered Sakura before Kiba could open his mouth. Both turned to face her. She turned her phone around, so they could see the screen, and pointed at it “This is Hinata’s schedule, she doesn’t have classes for at least another two hours”</p><p>Kiba frowned “How did you get that?</p><p>Sakura shifted in her chair “I have my methods”</p><p>“Sakura….”</p><p>“Fine” she flushed “I used everyone's student code to enter the system and download your schedules”</p><p>“What?” exclaimed Ino “Sakura you are worse than my mom”</p><p>“I’m not! I just wanted to have them since I knew it would come in hand, and guess what? I was right”</p><p>Ino rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Well, ignoring the fact that our dear Sakura is a stalker”</p><p>“I’m not!”</p><p>“Where do you think Hinata went?” finished Kiba.</p><p>“I’m guessing Naruto has something to do with it” answered Ino while going through her phone “They have been unusually quiet with each other whenever we get together. They also think they are being sneaky but I have noticed the smiles they throw at each other when they think no one is watching”</p><p>They sat there forming theories until their next class.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>It was ten minutes before class when Shikamaru, Sasuke and Shino stepped outside the classroom to have a smoke. First day had been boring, Shikamaru’s first classes were nothing exciting and it wasn’t until he got to the classroom a minute earlier that he noted he shared his third class with his two friends.</p><p>“I can’t wait for this day to be over” he said.</p><p>Sasuke nodded in response. Shino shook his head “It’s not even two pm Shikamaru”</p><p>“It could be 10 am and I would feel the same way, first days of school tend to be a waste of time”</p><p>“Have to agree with him on this one” said Sasuke “All I have done today is say my name and why did I decided to study business” he took a drag before speaking again “how am I supposed to say I’m studying this so my stupid brother can go fulfill his dream of traveling the world with his friends?”</p><p>“You know he can travel without you actually having to study this, right? He never asked you to” pointed Shino.</p><p>“Well he didn’t but dad sure wouldn’t like someone who isn’t an Uchiha taking over the company” being them the last ones of his family, Sasuke didn’t think he had much of a choice in the matter. “He would roll in his grave, or worse, comeback to life and kill us both”</p><p>Shikamaru rolled his eyes “As much as you claim to be the serious one of the group, you sure tend to be a little overdramatic”</p><p>“I actually enjoy the first days after summer break” Shino was going through the people standing outside the classroom waiting for the professor, everyone seemed so…happy. “Everyone is nicer after a good vacation, and teachers tend to wait a few days before complaining about how much of a mess we are” he pointed out.</p><p>The professor walked into the classroom and everyone followed suit. Shikamaru sat in the back of the room with Sasuke in front of him, while Shino took a seat in the front line, as he always did. Class went just as Shikamaru tought it would, the professor asking about their summer and making everyone say their name, age and major. He slept for half an hour after it was his turn and only woke up because Sasuke slapped him in the head when class finished.</p><p>They started to walk towards the library, Shikamaru still had one class left but he had two hours before it started. Sasuke had one hour before his next class and Shino was done for the day.</p><p>“Shino, I though you said that was your last class, why are you coming with us?” asked Shikamaru.</p><p>Shino sighed “Lee and Kiba thought riding with me would make them save money by not taking the bus, so now I have to wait for them so we can go home together”</p><p>“Pretty sure that’s not gonna last since you three have different schedules” said Sasuke.</p><p>“Oh, I know, I’m just waiting for them to realize that. I give them until wednesday, since that’s the day I get out until nine”</p><p>“Eh! Shikamaru! Sasuke!!!!!! Shino!!” Naruto was running in their direction, Lee a few steps behind, with what appeared to be weights on his feet.</p><p>“I don’t know why but seeing Lee like that doesn’t surprise me at all” murmured Shikamaru.</p><p>“He lost the ability to surprise us a long time ago” pointed Shino.</p><p>Lee and Naruto stopped in front of them, smile on their faces. It was the younger one who spoke “I love college! I can’t believe I spent half a year hearing you both” he pointed at Shikamaru and Sasuke “whine about college being boring and how you wished you could drop out, and then I come here and find out is the best thing ever, you two lied to me” he pouted.</p><p>“Ok first of all you decided to study sports, that seems like the less troublesome career in this whole campus, of course you are loving it” sighed Shikamaru “you are probably playing around all day”</p><p>Lee shook his head “I will have you know we do take sports as serious as any other career, we take anatomy, physiology, psychology” he lifted a finger with every subject he mentioned “I actually think this is one of the most difficult majors, just behind medicine”</p><p>“The fact that you think that is pretty worrying” said Sasuke as he took out his phone.</p><p>“Anyway, we were on our way to play soccer with a few of Lee’s classmates, mine are quite shy so they go to the library between classes, can you believe that?” Naruto was laughing, as if the mere thought of going to the library was a funny.</p><p>“Thank you, Naruto, but we are on our way to the library” responded Shikamaru, with a frown.</p><p>“Yep" added Shino "we can’t go to our classes smelling the way you do” the three snickered and started to walk away.</p><p>The blond one frowned, he then turned the way they were walking “Shino! What did you mean with that?!” the three ignored him. He turned to Lee “What did he mean with that?”</p><p>Lee shrugged “I don’t know, you smell good to me” he turned to Shino who was almost at the library entrance “Shino! Don’t forget about me! I get out at five!”</p><p>They then resumed walking to their original destiny.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>“How was your first day guys?” Temari had just entered the living room to find her brothers spread out in the couch, Gaara was reading with his earphones on and Kankuro was eating lucky charms directly from the box, while watching something on TV.</p><p>The younger one looked up and removed one earphone “Sorry did you say something? Had the music a bit loud to drown the sound of the TV”</p><p>She rolled her eyes “Kankuro your brother is trying to read, turn down the volume of the TV” when he didn’t do it she threw a pillow at him, directly at his head “I said turn down the volume!”</p><p>Kankuro sighed and rubbed his hair “Fine. You guys are really no fun”</p><p>“Anyway, I asked how your first day was”</p><p>“Oh, it was fine, thanks for asking” said Gaara “although I think people are scared of me”</p><p>The other one perked up “Uh? Why?”</p><p>“No one directly paired with me for the introduction work the professor made us do, he had to tell someone to do it against their will”</p><p>Temari frowned “They are stupid, give them some time and I’m sure they will change their mind”</p><p>“Well, Gaara is pretty scary if you don’t know him” mumbled Kankuro “just look at him” he pointed at his brother’s face “the no eyebrows thing is kind of scary”</p><p>Temari threw another pillow at him “shut up”</p><p>“It’s ok, I know I can be kind of weird from other people’s eyes”</p><p>When Temari was 3 years old her mom had died giving birth to his baby brother. It was a hard time for the whole family, specially his father who just couldn’t get over the fact that his younger son had “killed his wife”.</p><p>Temari grew up thinking there was something wrong with Gaara, since his father didn’t want to spend time with him; he would take Kankuro and her on vacation or simples walk on the park and leave his brother at home while they had a great time.</p><p>Gaara spent his whole childhood trapped inside his room, the only person around him being their nanny, and it wasn’t until Temari went into her last year of elementary school and met Daimaru, whose mother had died the same way, that she understood his father was an angry man, but her baby brother did nothing wrong.</p><p>She started treating him the way she treated Kankuro and asked for his forgiveness, and made his other brother do the same, it took sometime but eventually Gaara opened up to them, and started treating them the way the have been doing for a few years now.</p><p>She still blamed herself for being a bad sister to him during his childhood, but she was trying her best now, and would never let anyone hurt her little brother. As for their dad, Kankuro and her decided to apply the same measures he took with Gaara, ignoring him and not hanging out with him until he finally (and reluctantly) accepted to take psychological help. With time he learned that Gaara had nothing to do with his wife’s death, and was slowly learning to be a good dad for him. To this day was still trying to earn his forgiveness.</p><p>“You know what? If they can’t see you as the amazing person you are, then maybe they are the weird ones. You are perfect Gaara, screw them” she went to her room to change into her pajamas and then headed to the kitchen, getting stuff out the fridge “You know I’m not your personal chef, right?” They didn’t answer “Get off your asses and come help me! Both of you!”</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>“Leaving just now?” Tenten asked Sai, joining him on his way to the bus stop. The sun was just setting, it was close to 6:30 pm and the sky was a mix of orange and pink.</p><p>He nodded “Got caught up in the painting room”</p><p>“But is just the first day back dude, not even Sakura has things to do, school related”</p><p>“Oh no, it wasn’t because of school, I just miss the place” he sighed “back in Konoha my art room is long gone, mom made it into her own movie theater, so I don’t have much room to paint freely like I do here”</p><p>“Omg, same for me! I actually no longer have a room in my own house, my closet is full of my mom’s clothes cause apparently hers isn’t enough”</p><p>“It was bound to happen…”</p><p>“Yeah, I guess you are right” The bus stopped in front of them and they hopped in, paid their tickets and walked to the back of the bus, taking a seat. “Can you believe it’s been a year since we started college? I still remember our first day, we were really scared” she laughed at the memory.</p><p>“I think it was normal to be scared. It was just us, starting in a new city”</p><p>“Rock Lee refused to leave his room, claiming it wasn’t 'youthful' to start college with diarrhea”</p><p>Sai laughed at that, his eyes closing “I didn’t remember that part, he was really nervous”</p><p>“And Neji just stood there, a disgusted look on his face” she pouted “I miss living with you three, I mean, the girls are fun but they are really responsible, they make me do my homework, and the house is always clean, I have nothing to complain about!”</p><p>He threw his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her “You should be glad, at least you don’t share a house with Naruto” they both laughed at that.</p><p>The bus came to a stop a few minutes later, Tenten got up and grabbed her stuff “See you later Sai” she then got off the bus and started walking towards her house.</p><p>Sai got off two stops later and started walking towards his. His phone beeped when he crossed the street. It was a text from Sasuke.</p><p>
  <strong>Sasuke (18:35)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Neji’s house. Feel free to join us.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Sai (18:36)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>K, almost there</em>
</p><p>After getting home and changing into his pants he headed to Neji’s house, just two houses away from theirs. He opened the door without knocking and found his friends eating pizza on the couch, some movie playing on TV.</p><p>“Hey! You are home” Naruto greeted him, from his spot on the floor. His back was leaning against Chouji’s legs, who was eating a slice of pizza, and Sasuke was sitting beside him, eyes on his phone.</p><p>“Nice to see you have dinner ready for me” he dropped in the nearest place he found, it being a chair from the table.</p><p>“There is half a cheese pizza in the microwave” said Neji, from the individual couch of the room “Shikamaru hid it there since he was afraid Chouji wouldn’t leave anything to you”</p><p>“I appreciate that” he went to the kitchen, pushing the pizza button on the microwave to reheat it “I bumped into Tenten in the bus stop, says she misses the good old days”</p><p>“Good old days?” asked Chouji.</p><p>Neji smiled “I kind of miss those too” he turned to Chouji “when we moved here a year ago, Sai, Lee, Tenten and I used to live together. Although it was kind of stressful, it was also fun”</p><p>“Neji used to get mad all the time, I actually thought more than once that he would just go live in the dorms since Tenten and Lee used to drive him crazy” Sai was back at his spot, pizza in hand.</p><p>“They still do, I’m just not with them all the time. Thank god”</p><p>Shikamaru wandered down the stairs “Nice to see you all feel at home”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. But when you said, "Hello"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When I said I had a lot of free time I surely didn't take into account my finals were coming up. Hello my name is Cara and this is my sad story; I have an exam today and two more this week, plus like five next week so please wait for me while I get my student life together.</p><p>I'm gonna try to upload the chapters I already have, but I need time to check them so maybe around thursday a new chapter will be up.</p><p>Have a nice week!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
<em>"I would've stayed at home</em><br/>
<em>'Cause I was doing better alone</em><br/>
<em>But when you said, 'Hello'</em><br/>
<em>I know that was the end of it all"</em><br/>
<strong>Break my heart – Dua Lipa</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>Friday came around faster than Sakura would have liked, cause as the first week of classes ended her workload increased. She loved her major, she always knew she wanted to be a doctor, but she often forgot how demanding it was. Class had just finished and everyone was leaving when professor Tsunade called her.</p><p>“Sakura, could you please come down to my office?”</p><p>She nodded, finished packing her stuff and walked down to Tsunade’s office, taking a seat in front of her desk. “Is something wrong, professor?”</p><p>“Of course not, I just wanted to check on you” she took a sip from the coffee she held in her hand “I received such great comments about you from last semester's professors. What do you think of the classes up until now?”</p><p>She blinked a few times, surprised her professor cared about her opinion, she then composed herself and answered “Well, when I decided to take your class, I already knew what to expect, everyone knows you’re one of the most demanding teachers here, and it kind of shows. I like the class, and I also find having tests after every class refreshing, but I think that’s just because I like to show off my knowledge”</p><p>Tsunade smirked “You know Sakura, you remind me of one of my students from the past semester, and that’s one of the reasons I asked you to come. I’m starting a research project, I wanted to ask you if you would like to help me. See I’m allowed to have two paid students to help me with research and some other things, so what do you think?”</p><p>“Wh-whoa, yes yes yes” she had a big smile on her face “Omg, I can’t believe you are considering me for something like that, thank you so much professor Senju I promise I won’t let you down”</p><p>“You better not” there was a knock on the door “That must be your partner. Come in!” the door open and a blonde woman walked in. She was wearing a purple t-shirt with a blue skirt under her white lab coat and had a few books in her hands.</p><p>“Good afternoon, professor Tsunade, were you looking for me?”</p><p>“Yes! Welcome Temari, I wanted you to meet your partner for the research project I told you about yesterday, remember?”</p><p>Temari looked at Sakura and nodded “Hi” then turned to the professor “Of course, I was actually heading to the library to start right now”</p><p>Tsunade clapped “Excellent! I knew I could count on you two! Sakura, Temari is the student I was talking about” she turned to blonde girl “I was telling her how much she reminded me of you” she grabbed her purse from the table and got up “Well, I will leave you two to it, if you have trouble with anything you know where to find me”.</p><p>She left the room leaving the two girls looking at each other.</p><p>“Well…” trailed Temari “Want to come to the library and start? I’m pretty sure Tsunade didn’t say much but I can fill in any doubts you may have”</p><p>Sakura got up “Sure” They started to walk towards the library “I’m sorry but I think you look familiar, have we met before?”</p><p>Temari thought a moment about it “Well, I’m not sure. This is my third semester here, maybe we have bumped into each other”</p><p>Sakura nodded “Probably”</p><p>The library was full from head to toe, not a single table free for them to sit. “Maybe we should check the cafeteria” shrugged Temari.</p><p>Sakura looked around the table area until she spotted someone. “Oh, I know where we can seat, lets go” she started walking with Temari a few steps behind her. She stopped in front of a table with only two spots taken. “What’s up guys, mind if we sit with you?”</p><p>The table was occupied by a blond kid wearing an orange shirt, which looked horrible if anyone asked Temari, and a guy with long hair in a ponytail. Both looked up. The blond smiled.</p><p>“Sakura! Sure, sit down” he removed his backpack from the chair beside him while the other guy did the same. “How is THE” he made quotes in the air “medicine treating you so far?”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and sat next to the black-haired guy, leaving Temari to sit next to the blond one.</p><p>“Medicine is fine Naruto, how is sports going? Surprised to see you here instead of running after a ball”</p><p>Naruto sighed “Turns out sports is more than just playing around all day; I actually have to work” he pouted “College is hard”</p><p>“Weren’t you saying a few days ago that Sasuke and I were wrong by whining about college all day?” asked the other guy.</p><p>“You just can’t stop yourself from embarrassing me, right?”</p><p>“Just stating the facts”</p><p>“Stop fighting” interrupted Sakura before turning to Temari “This are my friends, Shikamaru” she pointed at the guy sitting beside her, then at the one in front “and this is Naruto”</p><p>Temari gazed from one to another “Nice to meet you, I’m Temari”</p><p>Naruto scanned her for a long time “Aren’t you Kankuro’s sister?”</p><p>She blinked, surprised “You know my brother?”</p><p>“He played volleyball with us on the beach last Sunday”</p><p>“So that’s why you seem familiar!” said Sakura “You were the one who dragged him away just before we went home”</p><p>She felt her ears turn a shade of pink “Yeah, that was me… Sorry about that, he tends to drive me crazy”</p><p>“We noticed” snickered Shikamaru. She frowned at him. She didn’t like smart-asses.</p><p>“Funny to find you here” added Sakura “Is your brother around?”</p><p>“Yeah, in the arts building, he is a theater major”</p><p>“Nice” exclaimed Naruto “Maybe he knows Sai”</p><p>“Who?” asked Temari.</p><p>“He is a friend of us” answered Sakura “He is an art major; they share the same building so maybe the know each other. He is in third semester”</p><p>Temari doubted “I don’t think so, this is Kankuro’s first semester”</p><p>Naruto shrugged before returning to his signature smile “You two should come to our party today”</p><p>She blinked “Party?”</p><p>“Yes! Naruto and his roommates are hosting a ‘back to school’ party” she quoted with her long fingers “you could come, Kankuro seemed to like us, and Kiba hasn’t stop talking about him whenever we see each other”</p><p>Shikamaru interrupted “Kiba gets like that with every new person he meets”</p><p>She didn’t like him; he was definitely a smart-ass. “We’ll see”</p><p>Sakura and her got to work after that. She explained the kind of work professor Tsunade was aiming for and the platforms she could use to get the information they needed. She learned fast so after a few minutes both were searching the stuff their professor wanted. Half an hour later Naruto left, mumbling something about a class named civic and ethical education and how much he hated it.</p><p>Temari liked college, being in third semester only made her feel closer to her goal; she longed for the day she could be self-sufficient, she wanted to travel the world on her own, move somewhere new, far from her home, where she could be whoever she wanted to. She didn’t even plan to be a doctor, she wanted to work as a waitress in some European country, or as anything that would make her earn money to live a comfortable life. She would live like that for a few years and then come back to his brothers being successful with Gaara taking over the company and Kankuro having written a play that would make him proud. That’s when she would work as a doctor, but not in a fancy hospital, maybe as a teacher in Suna, she hopped by then they would have a nice university.</p><p>She stopped daydreaming just to notice the empty chair in front of her, Sakura nowhere to be seen. She frowned, it was only her and the smart-ass. “Where did she go?”</p><p>He looked up from his work “She left like ten minutes ago saying she had class”</p><p>She nodded. It wasn’t weird for her to get caught up in her thoughts. After a few minutes she saw the time, 4:15 pm “Well, that’s it for today” and closed her laptop.</p><p>“You finished?”</p><p>“Yep, it’s not like I’m going to get pay more if I spent the whole day doing research”</p><p>He raised his eyebrows “You two are getting pay for helping your professor?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s an official project so the university is funding it, hence we are getting paid” That’s the reason she had said yes, no one turns down extra money.</p><p>He looked at her then went back to his book. He was quite handsome, dark hair and eyes, with a defined jaw and a straight nose. Slim, but no so much. He was exactly her type. If it weren’t for his attitude.</p><p>“So, are you Sakura’s classmate?” he asked.</p><p>She shook her head “I’m a semester ahead of her”</p><p>“You are older than her, then”</p><p>“Well I’m 23, if that’s what you are asking” she answered.</p><p>He frowned, getting closer at her “Shouldn’t you be graduating soon?”</p><p>“Shouldn’t you be studying instead of prying into other people’s life?”</p><p> “Touché” he returned to his normal position and his eyes went back to the book in front of him.</p><p>She started packing her stuff to go home, her school day was over and she wanted nothing more than to watch Netflix and ignore her responsibilities until sunday. She got up and started walking away without saying goodbye.</p><p>It was after a few moments of being alone that he felt a presence in front of him. He looked up to find the same blonde that left a few minutes earlier, a shade of pink covered her face. She was pretty. And also, kind of rude. Troublesome.</p><p>She sighed before speaking “I forgot to ask where the party was”</p><p>“Well maybe if you hadn’t left in such a hurry, I could have told you, as Sakura instructed me to”</p><p>She frowned and made move to leave.</p><p>“Fine, fine” he ripped a sheet from his notebook, wrote the address in it and gave it to her “you can drop in after 9 pm”</p><p>“Thank you” she said before leaving for good.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. From the start we've played together</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello everyone! I had some free time today and decided to finish this one.<br/>Once again, i'm sorry if you find any mistakes, as I already stablished, English is not my first language.<br/>Feel free to tell me what you think, or if you want anything to happen, more interaction between specific characters, ect. i'm open to suggestions.</p><p>Have a nice day!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
<em>“Change the color that’s the same every day<br/>
Today’s homage is chameleon<br/>
We all have different young souls and lives<br/>
From the start we’ve played together”</em><br/>
<strong>365 fresh – Triple H</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>Shikamaru wasn’t really into parties. Most of the time he ended up being dragged along with his friends, and if that wasn’t the case, he tagged along to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid. Today, on the other hand, he was really looking forward to it, since it wasn’t a party, just a get together between friends.</p><p>He had been drowning in his own thoughts since Hitomi broke up with him, they dated for almost two years and a month ago she told him she needed ‘time for herself, to remember who she was’, like he was some shitty boyfriend that didn’t let her be or, worse, made her be a different person. At first, he accepted it, thinking they would get back together after a few days, since she asked for ‘time’, she never said they were ending it for good, but apparently, he had it wrong, since she started going out with another guy a week later. Since then he had been so busy with filling the paperwork for his second semester and moving back to Tokyo that he still had to get drunk and sing cheesy and heartbreaking songs.</p><p>He reached for his phone when it beeped. It was Naruto, sending texts in the group chat.</p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (20:06)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Just letting u all know Kankuro and her sister MAY be coming</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Kiba (20:06)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>WHAT</em>
</p><p>
<em>Are u messing with me??????</em></p><p>
  <strong>Sai (20:07)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Who? </em>
</p><p>
  <em>May I remind you, Naruto, this is a SMALL get together, it’s supposed to be only us</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Sakura (20:08)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>It’s a guy we met at the beach, turns out his sister is my partner for a project we are helping professor Tsunade with.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Naruto invited them today in the library. Blame him.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (20:08)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>It’s only 2 more people Sai don’t be a fun-killer pls</em>
</p><p>
  <em>SAKURA! -.-</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You told her to come too</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Kiba (20:09)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Guys I think this is it</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m in love</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m going full Kiba on this one</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Tenten (20:10)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>You go full ‘Kiba’ with every person you like</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Which is, pretty much every person you meet</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Rock Lee (20:10)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>I must say my dear Tenten is right, you go on dates every night</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But I think that’s the most youthful thing to do</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Neji (20:11)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>Can,we,discuss,this,matter,at,the,party?</em></p><p>
<em>My,phone,is,heating,up,with,all,the,messages,coming,in</em></p><p>
  <strong>Ino (20:11)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>Omg Neji use spaces instead of commas</em></p><p>
<em>What’s wrong with you</em></p><p>
  <strong>Chouji (20:12)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>He says his phone is going crazy and the space key aint working</em></p><p>
  <strong>Hinata (20:12)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>Pls tell my cousin to get a new phone</em></p><p>
  <strong>Sasuke (20:13)</strong>
</p><p>
<em>Stop texting and hurry up, Naruto is already trying to ‘coerce’ us into doing shots with him.</em></p><p>
<em>Sai is not going to resist much longer.</em></p><p> </p><p>Shikamaru got up the bed, preparing to head downstairs where Neji and Chouji were watching TV, according to the mumble coming from the living room and the texts Chouji was sending him about a scary movie Neji was making him watch. He changed into more presentable clothes and headed downstairs.</p><p>“Shikamaru! Thank god” Chouji was sitting on the couch, hands over his ears and only one eye open “Can we leave already? Neji has me watching this horrible movie”</p><p>“Why are your hands over your ears, Chouji?” Asked Shikamaru as Neji turned off the TV.</p><p>Chouji dropped his hands, making a face at Neji “I learned a long time ago, thanks to your terrible habit of making me watch scary movies, that sounds in scary movies are what makes them scary, so covering your ears takes that away”</p><p>“Then why did you close your eyes?”</p><p>“I said it took away ONE of the scary things, those fucking ghost still get me coming out of nowhere”</p><p>Shikamaru laughed “As entertaining as this is, shall we leave now?”</p><p>Neji lifted an eyebrow “You are unusually edgy to get to the party”</p><p>“I haven’t had time to get wasted since breaking up with Hitomi, figured this was it”</p><p>Chouji smirked “Then let’s go!”</p><p>It was less than a two minutes’ walk from their house to his friends’. When they got there Naruto was trying to make Sasuke take a shot of tequila with him while Sai was drinking a big glass of water.</p><p>“I already told you I don’t want tequila, you dumbass”</p><p>“But Sasuke! Just this one, look I already served you this” begged Naruto, a cup in one hand and the bottle in the other “Stop chickening out”</p><p>“I have classes tomorrow!”</p><p>“You have ONE class, at 9 am” Naruto deadpanned.</p><p>“Fine. But I’m only having this one”</p><p>Naruto smirked “sure” he handed him the glass.</p><p>They both raised their respective drinks, and drank up. Sasuke made a face.</p><p>“Hello to you too, guys” waved Shikamaru.</p><p>“Thank god” mumbled Sasuke and Sai in unison.</p><p>“Guys!” Naruto lifted his eyebrows and started singing “Shot! Shot! Shot!”</p><p>“I will have to refuse such warming welcome, since I don’t like tequila” answered Neji.</p><p>Naruto pouted “Neji! You are no fun”</p><p>“Wait, why aren’t you making him drink?” asked Sai “They deserve the same treatment we received”</p><p>“He scares me”</p><p>“Indeed, I do” smiled Neji while passing him and taking a seat on the couch.</p><p>Naruto turned his attention to the other boys standing in front of him “What about you, Chouji? Ready to get drunk with me?”</p><p>“I sure as hell am, give me the bottle”</p><p>“Yasss, that’s my boy”</p><p>Shikamaru went to sit next to Neji. They had been chatting for a few minutes when the door opened again, showing the girls, carrying bottles of liquor and a big igloo.</p><p>“Don’t worry guys” smiled Ino “the party just started, since I’m already here to make everything better”</p><p>Hinata smiled apologetically at them “Hi boys”</p><p>Tenten put the igloo in the table “Chouji, could you pour a water jug in here”</p><p>“What are you doing?” asked Sasuke.</p><p>Tenten looked at him like he had grown another face “Ponche loco”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>She sighed “Ponche loco Sasuke, where do you live dude?”</p><p>“I know what it is, I jut want to know why are you planning on getting everyone here shitfaced when we agreed this would be a small gathering”</p><p>“Omg Naruto do something; your boyfriend is no fun”</p><p>Naruto growled “He is not my boyfriend” but went to get him “Let’s go Sasuke, everything is going to be ok” he reluctantly went along.</p><p>Tenten began to pour four lokos in the igloo, while Sakura throwed in a bunch of tropical punch kool-aids. Then Ino added a bottle of vodka, followed by two of tequila.</p><p>“They really are planning to get drunk today” mumbled Neji.</p><p>Kiba stormed into the house, Shino and Lee behind him “The party is here guys!”</p><p>“I’m sorry dude, but Ino already used that phrase” Sai patted him in the back.</p><p>“My dear friends, I missed you so much” cried Lee “is not the same to see you only between classes, school is consuming all our time. In honor of being all together let’s get youthful tonight” he hugged Neji, who was on his way to the bathroom.</p><p>“You mean drunk?” asked Shikamaru.</p><p>“Is there anything more youthful than getting drunk?” deadpanned Lee.</p><p>“The ponche is ready!” stated Sakura, already drinking.</p><p>Shino was carrying a laptop and projector, which he put in the table besides the sofa “Anyone wants to do the honor of choosing the first song?”</p><p>“Please don’t start with that reggaeton shit” started Sasuke.</p><p>“Of course, not” answered Tenten, she then smiled “that’s for later”</p><p>“You don’t even understand what it says” pointed Neji.</p><p>“Guys, you don’t need to understand it, just let it flow” said Ino “There’s no better music for a good twerk" she moved her hips.</p><p>An hour later everyone was bit tipsy, Hinata, Sakura and Shino, who was almost drunk, were singing Gimme! Gimme! Gimee! By Abba, Lee excitedly cheering them from his place as the DJ. The dining table had become the field for a game of ‘base-pong’ as Kiba had called it, he was explaining how to play.</p><p>“First of all, we need to make two teams, four players each one. As you see here in the table,” there were three cups placed along each of the larger sides of the table, with four others placed in a line in each shorter side “the four cups in front of the players are the bases, like baseball; if the ball enters the first one, you go to first base, which is the closest cup to you along the three ones placed on each side of the table, you get the ball in the second one you go to second base, same with the third one, BUT if the ball goes into the fourth cup it means home run, so you get a run, and so does everyone standing in the other three cups, from your team”</p><p>“Sounds easy” said Tenten.</p><p>“Oh I know, but here comes to funny part. See one team will be the fielding team, like in baseball, and the other one the batting team, the ones trying to get the ball in the cups” he said, looking at Ino, whom looked confused “The fielding team will be in front of the three cups at their side, while the batting team would be in the other ones as long as they get the ball in the ones at the front, as we already stablished. The batting team can try baserunning to the next cup”</p><p>“And how does that work?” asked Neji.</p><p>Kiba looked annoyed “If you would let me finish” he turned to face everyone else “Every cup in the table will be filled with ponche loco, and the person guarding the cups in the front from the fielding team will have to drink the one the ball falls in, but for the ones standing in front of each other at the bases, if the runners from the batting team want to steal a base they need to drink the ponche and spin one time, before flipping the cup, the person in front of you from the fielding team needs to do the same thing, only faster so you can’t steal it, that’s why they need to be paying attention, and if they win when you try to steal it then you are out.” he took a deep breath, tired of speaking “BUT ALSO, the fielding team can also do the same, to try and get outs faster, that’s why the runners in the bases need to be paying attention too”</p><p>“And who wins?” asked Chouji.</p><p>“Oh I forgot that part. Each team has three opportunities to be the batting team, it ends when the team gets three outs, for example, if Sai and Chouji get their balls in, but then Neji fails, that means they can only miss another two times before the team throwing the ball changes, and don’t forget what I already told you about the flipping cup, losing that means you’re out too. The winning team is the one with more runs” Kiba eyed them “Tenten and Ino are captains, since they are the only two girls here. Please choose your team members wisely. Also, since we are nine, I’m going to be the referee for this game only.”</p><p>“I like it” said Ino “I want Chouji and Shikamaru on my team”</p><p>Tenten sighed “You are supposed to choose one each turn, dude”</p><p>Ino pouted “I want Chouji” she turned to Shikamaru “sorry Shika, he is really good at beer pong” he shrugged.</p><p>“I want Neji”</p><p>“Shikamaru”</p><p>“Sasuke”</p><p>“Naruto”</p><p>“Sai”</p><p>When the game started Ino’s team quickly took the lead, she knew choosing Chouji and Naruto as her team was a good move, they basically ran the game against Sasuke and Tenten, who were the good ones of the other team. They got really excited when the game got to its final phase. Sai tried to out Naruto in the drinking game but lost, Shikamaru even got one ball in, the first of the night, and probably the last one. The game ended when Neji missed the cup, it being the third out for Tenten’s team.</p><p>“Well, I guess that means the winner of the amazing prize for today’s game is…” Kiba hit the table making drum rolls “Ino and his team! You guys get a kiss from me! Each of you”</p><p>Shikamaru raised his hands “I’m ok, you can give Ino my share”</p><p>“I don’t want it either!” said Ino, a look of disgust on her face.</p><p>“It’s ok, I’ll give them to Chouji and Naruto”</p><p>“Guys, want to sing with us?” asked Sakura from the living room, she had a red cup in one hand and the microphone on the other.</p><p>“What time is it?” Lee was lying on the carpet, next to the computer which moments ago he had been using to be DJ.</p><p>Sasuke took his phone out “10:13pm”</p><p>“What? So early? How can I be this drunk if it’s not even 11pm?”</p><p>“Lee, you get drunk with one beer” pointed Neji.</p><p>“What did you expect when you drank five glasses of ponche?” added Shino.</p><p>“I thought it was mostly kool-aid, it didn’t taste like alcohol to me” he was whining while rolling on the carpet.</p><p>“That’s not very youthful Lee” said Tenten, grabbing the mic Hinata had left on the couch.</p><p>That made him look up “You are right, Tenten” he then proceeded to grab the laptop again, his cheeks and nose were pink “Which song should I put?”</p><p>“Hero’s comeback!!!!!!” A cheer erupted and they all got into position.</p><p>Sakura and Tenten where standing at the center, with everyone around them, the song started and they took a rappers pose, moving their hands while singing. As the rap part came closer, they passed the microphones to Naruto and Kiba, the ones who knew that part like it was their name; they put on sunglasses and started singing, everyone else moving their hands and loosely dancing. For the next part Shikamaru and Shino got in, starting with 1, 2, 3, the singers got up in the couch.</p><p>And that’s exactly the way the sand siblings found them when Kankuro opened the door of the house, after no one answered when they knocked.</p><p>They stopped to take in the scene in front of them. Everyone was jumping and singing in the living room, smiles on their faces. Two boys were jumping on the couch, while two others were on the chairs spread in the room. Temari recognized two of them: the blond kid she met in the library with Sakura, she couldn’t remember his name, and Shikamaru, whom she definitely didn’t expect to see like that, he seemed so boring back in the library.</p><p>He spotted her and stopped what he was doing, his face back to what she remembered “We have visitors” he said into the mic.</p><p>Everyone turned to face them and Naruto greeted them “Guys! Nice to see you made it”</p><p>“Kankuro!” greeted Kiba, a big smile on his face.</p><p>“It’s not even 11pm, how come you are all drunk?” asked Kankuro, leaving his spot by the door to greet everyone.</p><p>“We are not drunk” answered Neji “just a bit tipsy”</p><p>“Of course, we are drunk!” interrupted Tenten “Shino is singing with us, there’s no other reason for him to do that”</p><p>“You seem pretty drunk. Anyway, this are my brothers” he pointed at them, still standing in the entrance “Temari and Gaara, although some of you already met her, since that’s why we are here”</p><p>“Professor Tsunade introduced us” explained Sakura, smiling at her.</p><p>“Gaara?” frowned Lee. He then smiled “Gaara!” he went to him and proceeded to hug the red-haired boy.</p><p>“You know him?” asked Temari.</p><p>“I’m so confused right now” added Tenten “or maybe I’m just too drunk” she touched her face.</p><p>“Of course, I know him” answered Lee “We met back in middle school, the summer I went to Suna with Guy so he could get certificated as a personal trainer, remember Gaara?”</p><p>Gaara nodded, a slight smile on his face “I remember”</p><p>“The world is such a small place” pointed Neji.</p><p>“Well, shall we go back to get wasted?” asked Naruto, bringing three cups with ponche from the kitchen, and giving one to each of the siblings.</p><p>“Lee! Hung up by Madonna please!!” Ino grabbed the mic from Shikamaru “Sit down guys, you are about to witness the performance of a lifetime”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't know if you felt like the basepong explaining stuff was unnecesary, i put it there cause i had never heard about that drinking game in my whole life before the friend of a friend teached us to play like a year ago, and since then ive never met anyone else who does, so i decided to add it in case you didnt know what it was.<br/>Tell me if you knew about it btw, i want to see if its just me who lives under a rock.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. It's so hard, pretending to be alright</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, I hope you enjoy the next chapter! School is killing me, i'm sorry if there are any mistakes in there. And please remember English is not my first language.</p><p>Feel free to leave comments.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
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  <p>
  <em>“It's so hard, pretending to be alright<br/>
According to my friends<br/>
You already found someone new<br/>
Will you tell me it's not too late?”</em><br/>
<strong>Rumor – KARD</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>It was almost 2am when he stepped out of the house to smoke; he was dizzy, but everyone else was drunk at this point, he didn’t think the party was going to last much longer, but knowing his friends they would rather die than stop a party before sunrise.</p><p>Being drunk made him feel relaxed, like he could do anything regardless of the consequences, then again, maybe that was the reason he didn’t like it. He was a strategic person, he like to be in control, knowing what would happen next so he could prepare for it. He thought being drunk would prevent him from thinking about Hitomi, but apparently it was the opposite since he was thinking of her nonstop; the first weeks he didn’t think too much about what had happened, but as time passed he had started to question if it was his fault, maybe he hadn’t been nice enough, smart enough, even handsome enough for her taste. Plus, moments ago drunk Chouji had let slip he saw her with her new boyfriend earlier today at the grocery shop close to their house. Drunk Chouji had no filter so he didn’t spare any details; apparently she looked really happy and even went out of her way to talk with him about how things were going for her, which was incredible, as Chouji had said, and also introduced him to Hidan, the amazing boyfriend she had met at the beach during summer.</p><p>The door opened behind him, but he didn’t bother to look back, expecting whoever it was to announce themselves.</p><p>“Care if I sit?” asked the person.</p><p>“Be my guest”</p><p>“What are you doing out here? Your blond friend took control of the music and everyone is twerking ‘gasolina’, a song I had never heard about” it was Temari, her cheeks a shade of pink and her hair free from the ponytails she came in with.</p><p>“Took her long enough, she had been trying to put that music since she got here” he took a long last drag on his cigarette and then crushed it beneath his shoe “I suppose that means Neji is really drunk, he usually stops her from doing it”</p><p>“The long-haired boy?” she smiled “Oh no he tried; it was just everyone else against him so he didn’t have much of a choice”</p><p>He smiled “What are you doing out here? Didn’t like the music?”</p><p>“The music was…” she frowned “Interesting? I just needed some air, and to escape from the sight of my younger brother twerking with your friend”</p><p>That surprised him “You mean Lee and Gaara?”</p><p>“Omg no! Kankuro and… Kiba I think?”</p><p>“Ah, yeah that sounds more likely”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Kiba said earlier he liked him”</p><p>“Yeah and earlier in the library you said he was like that with everyone. Although I guess is nice since Kankuro changed clothes four times, worrying about not looking good enough” she laughed “it makes sense now”</p><p>They sat there in silence for a while, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as Shikamaru had expected, since he didn’t know her at all.</p><p>“And why are you here all alone?”</p><p>Shikamaru sighed while considering his options, he could lie to her, since they didn’t know each other, but from what she had told him about Kiba and her brother, and the reaction from Lee before, they would probably be seeing a lot from each other “Just wanted to take a break from the party and think about stuff”</p><p>“What kind of stuff?”</p><p>“Just... Private stuff” he hopped she wouldn’t get offended.</p><p>“Ok” she closed her eyes and stretched her limbs, breathing in “I didn’t like you earlier”</p><p>He smiled “I could tell”</p><p>She sighed, pointing at him "That's why! You are such a smart-ass”</p><p>“I am smart”</p><p>She snorted “See what I mean?”</p><p>She really was pretty. And smart, he thought to himself.</p><p>“Well thank you, I know that pretty well” she said, blushing.</p><p>Then he realized he had said it out loud. He blushed. “Maybe is time for me to stop drinking”</p><p>“Oh don’t be embarrassed, I like it when people compliment me”</p><p>“That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing”</p><p>“For the record, I also thought you were cute, just before you started talking”</p><p>He blinked “You really think I’m a smart-ass, right?”</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>“What do you think about starting over?” he handed her his hand.</p><p>She seemed to think about it for a second “Ok” she took his hand and shook it.</p><p>“Nice to meet you”</p><p>“Likewise,” she smiled “Now that we decided to start over, you should tell me why you are here, to prove the value of this friendship”</p><p>“I never said we would be friends” he pointed.</p><p>“There he goes again” she rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Ok, ok” he surrendered “I was thinking about my ex”</p><p>“Hmm, interesting. What about her?”</p><p>“She has a new boyfriend” he added.</p><p>“I see. But what’s the problem?”</p><p>“She broke up with me less than two months ago and already has a boyfriend” he started to complain, even though it wasn’t like him to whine about his life with people he barely knew.</p><p>“I still don’t see the problem dude”</p><p>He sighed “The problem is, we dated for almost two years, then out of nowhere she said she need time, so I gave it to her, cause I thought after a few days she would come back and everything would be fine, but she didn’t, in fact a week later she was already seeing someone”</p><p>She nodded “Now that’s a problem” Temari kept quiet for a few minutes “but that’s in the past, apparently she already moved on, so why are you here crying instead of enjoying this time with your friends?”</p><p>“I’m not crying”</p><p>“Sure Jan”</p><p>He frowned “I just… I don’t understand what I did wrong”</p><p>She put a hand on his shoulder “Sometimes people just stop loving each other, it doesn’t mean you did something wrong. Some people come into your life for a bit and then leave without explanation, that’s what life is about”</p><p>“You seem pretty chill about it, never had your heart broken before?”</p><p>“Nop, I never had a boyfriend before, just flings here and there. Nothing too serious to get a heartbreak from it. Although I’ve sure broke many hearts” she smiled.</p><p>“I guess it makes sense. You don’t seem like the girlfriend type”</p><p>“And what does that mean?”</p><p>“I don’t know, you just don’t seem like the type”</p><p>She frowned, and apparently was about to speak when the door opened again. Neji passed through them with Tenten leaning on his shoulder. He stopped to sit her on the grass.</p><p>“What’s wrong with Tenten?” asked Shikamaru.</p><p>Neji sighed “She wanted to puke but Sai was in the bathroom”</p><p>“Use the one upstairs”</p><p>“Hinata is using that one. I brought her outside to see if breathing fresh air made her feel better”</p><p>“I guess that means the party is over” pointed Temari. She got up and stretched herself “I’m going to get my brothers and leave” she went inside and Shikamaru decided to follow her.</p><p>Sakura and Ino where trying to sing some spanish song from their place in the couch, Lee and Gaara were by the table, talking to each other, everyone else sitting on a circle, cards in their hands.</p><p>“Guys let’s go” said Temari.</p><p>Kankuro turned to face her, pouting “Tem, is barely 3am, stop being a grandma”</p><p>“The party is over anyway. Tenten is about to die outside”</p><p>“Oh no, just give her a few minutes and she will be back to her youthful self” answered Lee from his place.</p><p>Shikamaru sat in the empty chair by the stairs “Yeah, she always does this, she will be fine”</p><p>“Naruto is taking too long” said Sasuke “I’m going to go make sure he didn’t die while trying to change his clothes”</p><p>“Check on Hinata too!” said Kiba “She went to the bathroom like ten minutes ago and hasn’t come back, I’m tired of drinking her share when it’s her turn”</p><p>Sasuke nodded before taking the stairs. Shikamaru made a sign to Temari, so she went to sit with him, he gave her the chair and went to grab another one from the dinning room. Gaara gave him an odd look.</p><p>Just seconds after sitting down a scream was heard from upstairs, followed by a pair of steps running down the stairs. Sasuke went to hide behind Sakura, who was coming back from the kitchen, cup in hand. Naruto came down a few seconds later, his shirt backwards and no shoes on sight.</p><p>“Sasuke!” he pleaded.</p><p>His friend pointed at him “HE!” he said “and Hinata were KISSING ON HIS BED!”</p><p>Neji screamed “WHAT?!” he had just entered the room, Tenten beside him, looking much better than a few minutes ago.</p><p>“It’s not like that!” pleaded Naruto, he raised his hands as a sign of peace “Please let me explain!”</p><p>“I knew it!” Ino grinned “You two had been dating for a few weeks now, right?”</p><p>“WHAT?!” questioned Neji, again.</p><p>“You are not helping Ino” mumbled Chouji.</p><p>“Where is Hinata?” asked Tenten.</p><p>Just as she said that, Hinata appeared down the stairs, face as red as a tomato “P-please stop screaming”</p><p>“Hinata, care to explain what’s going on?” Shino demanded.</p><p>She got even more red, it looked like her face was going to explode any moment. She kept quiet for a few seconds “Naruto and I have been dating for a month now” it was said so fast they almost didn’t get it.</p><p>Ino smiled, getting her hands up in a winning pose “I fucking knew it” she clapped “Listen, I’m going to open my business as a fortune teller, feel free to…” Sakura put her hand on Ino's mouth before she could finish.</p><p>“That’s amazing guys, but why didn’t you tell us?” asked the pink-haired girl before Neji could say anything.</p><p>“Because we knew Neji would react like that” said Naruto, pointing at said guy, who was pretty much being held by Tenten and Sai, who had gotten up to stop him from going after Naruto.</p><p>“My cousin wouldn’t like me dating someone like Naruto”</p><p>“Someone that dumb?” mocked Shikamaru, which earned him a frown from the blond.</p><p>Hinata blushed, before nodding.</p><p>“Hey! You said it was because I didn’t ask your father first!” pouted Naruto.</p><p>“And also, that” added her, smiling at her boyfriend.</p><p>“He really is dumb” said Sai, a smile on his face.</p><p>“Dude!” frowned Naruto.</p><p>Everyone laughed, even the three siblings, just listening to the conversation without meddling in. Neji finally got rid of the grip from his friends, and went to stand in front on Naruto. Everyone grew quiet.</p><p>“Come on, dude!” Kiba meddled in “It’s not like he’s going to break her heart, right?” he turned to Naruto, a dangerous smile on his face. Hinata was Kiba’s best friend after all.</p><p>Naruto gulped “O-of course not! I would never!”</p><p>“You better not do anything bad to Hinata” warned Neji “I promised uncle Hiashi I would make sure she didn’t have any hardships here”</p><p>“She won't! I promise I would make her the happiest girl in the world please don’t kill me Neji” pleaded Naruto “we are friends!”</p><p>“He won’t kill you Naruto, stop embarrassing yourself” deadpanned Sasuke.</p><p>“At least this little interlude got us all sober up” pointed Shino.</p><p>“And it was fun to see Naruto shit his pants” added Sai.</p><p>Naruto turned to see him “Really Sai? Dude we live together have some respect for your roommate”.</p><p>“I do” Sai kept smiling “I respect Sasuke” said boy smiled and fist bumped Sai.</p><p>“I hate you both” Everyone laughed.</p><p>“I think it’s time to leave” said Chouji “I’m falling asleep, which means I’ve had my share of alcohol for the night”</p><p>“Yeah, Hinata owe us a story and we aren’t getting it here” pointed Ino. Hinata blushed.</p><p>“I agree! Let’s go girls, it’s gossip night!” Sakura beamed.</p><p>Kiba pouted “Why are you leaving so early? Sasuke and Sai are going to throw us out if you all leave”</p><p>“Oh, they don’t need to leave for us to do that” explained Sai.</p><p>“He is right, I have class in” he stopped to do the math “less than six hours and we still have to clean this mess, so please make your way to the door” he pointed at the entrance.</p><p>Temari got up from the chair “Let’s go guys” she said to her brothers. They nodded this time, without complaining.</p><p>“Thank you for inviting us” said Gaara “I’m not much of party guy but it was fun to see you all get drunk”</p><p>“Feel free to come to every party my friend!” answered Lee, hugging him “We are never parting ways again”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. This time for sure, I'll be the first to talk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello everyone, sorry if i kept you waiting. School got out of hand last week and i didnt have time to write. Anyway I'm officially done with ninth semester and ready to start the LAST ONE, i almost can't believe it, university trapped me five years ago and is literally refusing to let me go.<br/>Enough about me since i know you all dont care lol. </p><p>Here is the new chapter, i think is short but also kind of sweet. This is for the naruhina shippers, i'm not really a fan of the ship since yo no le encuentro ni pies ni cabeza (i dont know how to say that in english but it goes along the lines of "it makes no sense to me"), but lets be honest, does ANY of the canon ships in Naruto (besides shikatema since that one is been on the making since the first chunnin exams) make sense? The answer is no, but i wanted to keep this fanfic true to the canon pairings at least, since the konoha 12 are kind of OCC here, yeah sorry about that.<br/>Sorry if you find any mistakes, as i have already establish before English is not my first language, if you want you can kindly point them out and i will check it.<br/>Enjoy!!!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
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<em>“Do you realize what's going on inside me<br/>
Don't disappear from my view like this<br/>
This time for sure, I'll be the first to talk<br/>
But it's only in my head, always only in my head”</em><br/>
<strong>TT – TWICE</strong>
</p>
</blockquote><p>“Ok, spit it out” said Ino.</p><p>Hinata was surrounded by her friends in her bed. They had dragged her out of Naruto’s house so fast she didn’t even have time to say goodbye to him. Maybe not telling them was a bad idea after all. She sighed; it was going to be a long night.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>Hinata wasn’t the type of girl who said ‘I like you’ first, she preferred to wait until the guy magically realized she was in love with him. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t seem to be working well this time, not that it worked before, either. She just felt so embarrassed about telling it to someone and then be rejected. She hated being so shy, but there was nothing she could do about it, she had been seeing a psychologist for a few months now, and it was helping her, for the most part. Her stutter was almost gone and she was now capable of maintaining a conversation with people aside of her friends just fine, she even had conversations with Naruto without turning totally red for no reason; she did improve a lot, but being shy was a thing that would be with her forever.</p><p>That’s why when Naruto asked her out, she almost fainted, but didn’t because she remembered how to breath on time. She had said yes, obviously, and without meaning to she had started to go out with her longtime crush. </p><p>“Naruto” she said one day. They were eating ramen in Naruto’s favorite place back in Konoha.</p><p>“What’s up?” he didn’t stop eating, probably fearing his food would get cold.</p><p>“Are you trying to date me?” she asked, before she could chicken out.</p><p>Naruto chocked on his ramen “What?”</p><p>She blinked and asked again.</p><p>“Uhm… I don’t… think so?” he said, but it sounded more like a question.</p><p>“You can’t answer a question with another one” she pointed.</p><p>“But I really don’t know”</p><p>“Then what are we doing?”</p><p>“What do you mean?” he had a frown on his face.</p><p>“Well” she sighed, it was now or never “You asked me on a date two weeks ago, and you kept inviting me after that, so I just assumed you were trying to woo me” she felt her cheeks turn pink.</p><p>Naruto coughed “Omg” he panicked “Hinata! I’m sorry! I invited you… as friends”</p><p>She stopped breathing, how could she turn something so banal as friends eating together into something like dating, she was hyperventilating now.</p><p>“Hinata?” asked Naruto, passing his hand in front of her face but she didn’t acknowledge him “Hinata, are you ok? Please answer me” he begged.</p><p>She felt tears form in her eyes but tried to stop them “I’m ok”</p><p>“I didn’t mean it like that! I had a wonderful time this weeks, I just didn’t think you would like me back. Please forgive me” he seemed embarrassed.</p><p>“What did you say?” she asked, hope on her voice.</p><p>He gulped “I didn’t mean it like that?”</p><p>“No” she frowned “the other part”</p><p>It was Naruto who turned red this time. He lowered his head before replying “I like you” he mumbled.</p><p>“You do?” Hinata beamed.</p><p>Naruto nodded, not looking up.</p><p>“Naruto, I like you too!”</p><p>That made him raise his head “You do?”</p><p>“Yes! I have liked you for the longest time”</p><p>He frowned “But you didn’t say anything!”</p><p>“I was afraid you wouldn’t like me back”</p><p>“Ah! I’m so happy I lost my appetite” he pushed his plate aside, ramen still hot. He gripped her hands “Hinata, would you do me the honor of dating me?”</p><p>“You mean be your girlfriend?” she asked.</p><p>“Well, you can date me for a while and then see if you still want to be my girlfriend”</p><p>She shook her head “I want to be your girlfriend right now”</p><p>He blinked “O-ok!” She smiled, her cheeks pink “You’re really pretty, I can’t believe you are my girlfriend”</p><p>The next weeks Hinata felt like she was dreaming, Naruto went to pick her up every date they had, and then returned her safely to her house, he took her to the movies and the park, and always gave her his jacket, even when it wasn’t that cold, since it was summer. The only problem was that she didn’t know how to tell her dad, he would be so mad, he didn’t like his daughters dating guys before graduating college. It made her anxious. Even more because they also didn’t know how to tell their friends. They had been hiding all week, making excuses about not having time to see them so they could spend a bit more time together.</p><p>“Sasuke keeps asking me to go play volleyball with them” said Naruto one afternoon, they were having a picnic at the park, she had made the food. She was leaning against a tree while Naruto had his head on her legs, she was caressing his hair.</p><p>“You should go” She didn’t want him to be away from his friends just to be with her.</p><p>“I don’t want to” he turned his eyes to meet hers “I’m pretty comfortable here”</p><p>She smiled “I’m too, but they will get suspicious if you keep ditching them”</p><p>He frowned “We should tell them”</p><p>She shook her head “We can’t”</p><p>“But why? I want them to know I have the best girlfriend in the whole world” he pouted.</p><p>“I don’t want things to be weird”</p><p>“Why would that happen?”</p><p>She sighed “We have been friends for so long, I really like the way we are all comfortable with each other. If you and I start dating and then break up for whatever reason I don’t want them to feel the need to choose a side, that would affect our friendship and that’s the last thing I want”</p><p>“I don’t want that to happen either, so there is only one thing we can do to prevent it” he paused “we won’t ever break up”</p><p>She laughed “I agree”</p><p>“Do we tell them then?”</p><p>She nodded “Let’s just wait a couple more weeks, I have to tell my father first”</p><p>He kissed her “I really like you, but your father scares me”</p><p>The thing was, weeks kept flowing by and she didn’t tell her father. Before she noticed she was back in Tokyo and his dad didn’t know about her and Naruto, so she didn’t know what to do.</p><p>Kiba, Sakura and Ino had invited her to have lunch with them at the school cafeteria, it was her first day back to college and everything was calm, so she said yes. They were laughing at some old story from high school when her phone beeped in her pocket, she got it out. It was a text from Naruto.</p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (12:27)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Where are you? Want to make out a bit before your next class? </em>
</p><p>“Oh!” She gasped, Hinata felt herself turn red, her clothes felt really hot, <em>had the cafeteria always been this warm?</em> she thought. Then proceed to put her trash in the tray and grabbed her backpack “I forgot I had class, sorry guys, I will see you later” She left in a hurry.</p><p>
  <strong>Hinata (12:28)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Cafeteria. Where are you? I’m coming!</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (12:28)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Sports building, I will wait for you in the entrance ;)</em>
</p><p>They were sitting under a tree by the sports building after a successful make out session when Naruto brought up the elephant in the room “Should we tell them now? Is going to be hard being with each other now that we all live together”</p><p>She sighed “I guess is time, I haven’t told my father yet but I don’t want to keep lying to them”</p><p>Naruto grabbed her hand “We can tell him next time we are in Konoha”</p><p>She nodded “We should tell them this weekend”</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>“I can’t believe I didn’t notice it” pouted Tenten.</p><p>“Well, you get distracted very easily Tenten” pointed Sakura.</p><p>Hinata nodded “I’m sorry girls, I really wanted to tell you”</p><p>Ino put a hand on her shoulder “Don’t worry, we understand why you did it”</p><p>“To be honest, you two breaking up could be quite difficult” shrugged Tenten.</p><p>Sakura slapped her in the arm “That’s not what you say when your friend just told you she was afraid of that in the first place”</p><p>She rubbed her arm “I’m sorry Hinata”</p><p>“Don’t listen to her, I’m sure you two will date for a long time and then get married”</p><p>“Thank you, Sakura”</p><p>“Yeah” added Ino “You have been in love with him for so long I find it practically impossible for you to love anybody else”</p><p>Sakura nodded “And Naruto is dumb but also really loyal, he would never do anything to hurt you”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hi, me again, if you like fanfiction dot net could you please let me know? im thinking about crossposting this one there but im not sure anyone reads there anymore, but maybe thats just me, i stopped using it for so long but im back now since i already read every fucking good story in this website</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. I see you, not knowing what to do</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm working on another story at the moment, that's why is taking me a bit longer to update.<br/>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>“Oh you still say love is game<br/>
You tell me but your voice is shaking<br/>
Past the playful eyes<br/>
I see you, not knowing what to do”</em><br/>
<strong>Russian Roulette – Red Velvet</strong>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>The sound of his phone beeping woke Neji up. Turning to his night table he realized it was pretty late, he hadn’t plan on sleeping so much. He grabbed his phone, an old iphone 5 he refused to change because it would mean falling for the consumerism he hated. </p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (11:52)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Everyone alive?</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Ino (11:52)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Me. What’s up?</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Kiba (11:52)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Me, but barely dude</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Gothic god (11:52)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Ssup</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Sai (11:53)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Why is there someone named ‘gothic god’ in this group chat?</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Shino (11:53)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>I had the same question.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Sakura (11:53)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Kiba added Kankuro to the group while playing cards.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Naruto (11:53)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Welcome to the jungle Kankuro!!!!!!!!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>We are really funny, pls excuse their paranoiac asses</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Shino (11:54)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>We just asked who it was, Naruto.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Gothic dude (11:54)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Thanks dudes </em>
</p><p>
  <strong>Chouji (11:54)</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Guys I’m starving, anyone up for some Mcdonalds?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There’s one close to the school</em>
</p><p>Neji’s phone started to warm up and the screen stopped moving even if his finger tried to go down the messages, it always happened when his friends used to group chat at the same time. Maybe it was time to change the phone, he thought, a used iphone 6 wouldn’t give money to big companies.</p><p>He sighed and got up his bed, walking to Chouijs room. After an audible “come in” from his friend was heard, he opened the door.</p><p>“What are they saying in the group? My phone froze, again”</p><p>“Dude, just get a new phone, you can’t go around using that thing anymore” deadpanned Chouji.</p><p>“I’m getting a used iphone 6, just decided”</p><p>His friend rolled his eyes “Whatever, I’m getting Mcdonalds, a few said yes, want to come?”</p><p>He wasn’t a fan of food chains, but he was kind of hungover, and hungry, so he nodded, maybe some food would make him less tired. “Is Shikamaru still sleeping?”</p><p>“You bet” Chouji grabbed his walled from the nightstand and unplugged his phone “Go get changed, I’m going to take a risk and wake him up”</p><p>Neji went to his room while Chouji walked to his friend’s bedroom. He slowly opened the door just to find an empty bed and his friend nowhere to be seen. He frowned and went to the bathroom; the door was open and no one was inside.</p><p>“Shikamaru?” he asked out loud. No answer.</p><p>“Didn’t find him?” asked Neji coming out of his room.</p><p>He shook his head “Maybe he had something to do early in the morning”</p><p>Neji shrugged “Let’s go, I’m starving”</p><p>They walked down the stairs and Neji grabbed the keys before opening the door, Sai was outside, laying against the car in the driveway. He looked paler than usual with the black hat and sunglasses he was wearing.</p><p>“Hungover?” asked Chouji.</p><p>“Just a bit”</p><p>Neji opened the car and they hopped in “Naruto and Sasuke aren’t coming?”</p><p>“Sasuke just got out of class, he will meet us there” explained Sai from the backseat “and Naruto said he was getting something with Hinata”</p><p>Chouji laughed “Still can’t believe we didn’t notice that”</p><p>“Tell me about it” added Neji, he stopped at a red light and turned to them “Honestly, what does my cousin see in that dumbass?”</p><p>“I thought you liked him” pointed Sai.</p><p>“I do” sighed Neji “I just don’t like that he is dating Hinata, she’s like a sister to me, and he is one of my best friends”</p><p>“I don’t see the problem” shrugged Chouji, eyes on his phone while tapping furiously.</p><p>Neji rolled his eyes “I don’t understand how I came to be friends with you”</p><p>“I don’t understand either” murmured Sai.</p><p>“My mistake, I don’t understand how I came to be friends with ANY of you” but proceeded to explain “Hinata and Naruto are our friends right? We are like one big family, so they have the same friends, no matter if they have friends from college they can hang out with, we are their best friends, all of us”</p><p>His friends nodded, but their eyes showed they still didn’t understand “Imagine if they break up, even if it’s on good terms, things will be weird. Hinata probably wouldn’t stand being around Naruto, so eventually we will have to choose a side”</p><p>Realization hit Chouji “Ahhhh” then frowned “But who says they are going to break up?”</p><p>“Everyone breaks up eventually Chouji, love doesn’t last forever” simply stated Neji.</p><p>“Is that why you never asked Tenten out after she broke up with Ukon?” asked Sai.</p><p>Neji coughed, his eyes widening “I don’t know what you are talking about” he said while parking the car. He quickly turned it off and got out. His friends following him while secretly high fiving.</p><p>When they entered the restaurant, their friends were already there, Sasuke and Shino sitting on one side, while Tenten and Sakura sat on the other, when the pink haired girl spotted them, she pointed to the table next to them and removed her purse.</p><p>“Finally! I’m starving” greeted Tenten as she stood up and made her way to the counter, Neji followed her.</p><p>“Why didn’t Ino come?” asked Sai, taking a seat “I heard Naruto was going to take Hinata on a date. Did you leave her alone?”</p><p>Sakura nodded “She can’t eat this”</p><p>“Is she dieting again?”</p><p>“Yep, said this last weeks she ate too much junk food”</p><p>Shino nodded “She has to lose weight if she wants to win that gymnastic competition she participates in every year”</p><p>“When is it again?” meddled Sasuke.</p><p>“Two months” answered Chouji.</p><p>“I’m going to order” said Shino while getting up and leaving, Sasuke and Sakura followed a few moments after. Chouji and Sai decided to wait till Tenten and Neji came back to go get their food.</p><p>“Look at him” Chouji pointed at Neji, who was holding his and Tenten’s tray, the girl was pouring catsup and ranch in little containers and then passing them to Neji. He was smiling “He’s so head over heels for her! And choose to ignore it” he said disapprovingly.</p><p>“For a genius physicist he can be pretty dumb” snickered Sai.</p><p>“But I didn’t know the story about him asking her out when Ukon broke up with her” pointed Chouji.</p><p>Sai thought about it for a minute “Well he didn’t. It was last year when you were still in Konoha. Neji, Lee and I went out drinking and I don’t know why but he got REALLY drunk, he even sang a few songs in the karaoke, and accidentally said he liked her, but also that she was her best friend and didn’t want to screw that up if she didn’t like him back, so we told him that was dumb, if she liked her he should go for it, right?”</p><p>Chouji nodded.</p><p>“After a long conversation he ended up saying he would ask her out the next time she was single” finished Sai.</p><p>“And did it take long?”</p><p>Sai laughed “No! Ukon broke up with her like three days later, then he said he would wait a few days to let her get over that dude, but time passed and he never asked her”</p><p>“He chickened out” stated Chouji.</p><p>Sai shrugged “Maybe, or maybe he really didn’t want to screw up their friendship”</p><p>Tenten and Neji got to the table and they went to place their order. Neji threw them a judging look.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>Shikamaru had woken up unusually early, especially after he had gotten to bed almost at 4 am. But he decided to make the most out of it and after changing into some pants and a green sweatshirt he drove to his favorite park, he liked it because it was close to both his house and the school. The park was almost empty, since it was saturday and most of the people who came here were students. He laid down on the grass under the shadow of a tree and closed his eyes. He missed Konoha, since it wasn’t a big city most of it was green, trees and grass spread all over the city, his family even had a forest all to themselves, it was passed from one generation to another and the whole family had their homes there.</p><p>When he woke up again, after unknowingly falling sleep in the first place, it was because the shadow of the tree didn’t cover his face anymore, his hand moved to touch the skin of his face, it was hot, so it must had been a while since it changed places.</p><p>He felt his stomach growl. Not having breakfast before leaving the house probably wasn’t the best idea, he thought. He sighed and stared at sky, cloud watching was another thing he missed from Konoha. Ever since he had moved, he didn’t have the time to do it as much as he would like, since school took most of his time.</p><p>He had been in that position for a while when he felt someone sit next to him.</p><p>“Didn’t take you as the athletic type” greeted the voice.</p><p>He turned. It was Temari “Hello to you too”</p><p>She smiled “Came for a run?”</p><p>He shook his head “I like to lay down in the grass and just stare at the clouds”</p><p>“Sounds boring” replied her.</p><p>He rolled his eyes “So is running”</p><p>“Mhm”</p><p>They sat in silence for a while, Shikamaru felt his eyes close after a while.</p><p>“Are you sleeping?” she asked.</p><p>“I’m trying to”</p><p>“Didn’t you get enough sleep during the night?”</p><p>“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” it came out harsher than he expected. He waited for the angry comeback but instead she laughed.</p><p>“Actually, I do, I was on my way to the restaurant across the street to get breakfast when I saw you. Want to eat with me?”</p><p>He frowned “Are you asking me on a date?”</p><p>She made a disgusted face “No! Oh my god. Why would you think that? We barely know each other, I mean we met yesterday for god’s sake!” she paused, then mumbled “I just don’t like eating alone and you are here, doing nothing”</p><p>He was about to say no when his stomach growled again.</p><p>“I see you are hungry, too”</p><p>He sighed “Fine, let’s go eat”</p><p>She smiled and got back on her feet, handing him a hand, he reluctantly took it and got up, stretching himself after. She started to walk away without waiting for him, so he grabbed his stuff and followed suit. The restaurant she mentioned was a small house without any visible signs, but the door was open and she walked right in without knocking first, he frowned but did the same.</p><p>The first thing he noticed after getting in was the table in the middle of the room, various chairs that didn’t seem to belong to the table were around it. The place was a bit run down but still cozy, if that made sense. Temari walked past the second door, with Shikamaru a few steps behind, there was another table in the room and in the next one was an old lady in what appeared to be the kitchen. She was moving around the room carrying things from one place to another.</p><p>Temari stopped in the middle of the room “Ms Chiyo, hello”</p><p>The old lady put the stuff on the counter and turned to her “Oh, my child, how are you? It’s nice to see you after such long time”</p><p>Temari smiled and grabbed her hand “Nice to see you too, granny, how is business going?”</p><p>“Slow” she stated “but now that everyone is going back to school, I’m sure it will be better, you know the drill”</p><p>She nodded, then turned to Shikamaru and motioned for him to go there “This is a friend of mine, Shikamaru”</p><p>He stretched her hand and gave her a slight smile “Nice to meet you”</p><p>She nodded “You too, always nice to have new customers”</p><p>“We will have whatever you made for today” said Temari, moving to take a seat in the empty table. The old lady nodded and went to the kitchen.</p><p>Shikamaru moved to take a seat next to her “You come here often?”</p><p>She nodded “Yep, I found this place during my first semester, the food is delicious and Ms Chiyo was good company whenever I felt alone, so I spent a lot of time here”</p><p>“Never heard of it”</p><p>“She used to be very famous among workers of the zone and students a few years ago, but her grandchild died and she left to be with her brother since this place didn’t feel like home for her anymore. She got back just before I started university, and one day when I was running back in the park she slipped while cleaning the sidewalk and I saw her, came to see if she was ok and that’s it” she mumbled everything, as if making sure the old lady didn’t hear it.</p><p>“That’s a sad story” he pointed.</p><p>“It is, she doesn’t talk about it very often” she sighed, watching the lady put the food on plates.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. There's no place I'd rather be</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hello everyone, i know i've been away for a while but life got in the way, life as in quarantine life, since i dont leave my house at all (if you can, please do the same! at least where i live things are still pretty bad with this covid19 thing).<br/>I've been writing a lot, but unfortunately, i can't seem to get my eyes out of my other story, which will be published as soon as i get a few more chapters done.<br/>Before updating this i was going through my past chapters and i must say, why are you guys even reading this? there are so many mistakes i wanted to cry while reading it. i'm going to fix them as soon as i have time, but i will let you know in case you want to re-read it once its done.<br/>anyway, enjoy it! as always, English is not my first language and i dont have a beta so pls forgive me and if you want, you can kindly point mistakes out so i can check them!<br/>See you soon!!!!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
<em>“Sacred simplicity</em><br/>
<em>As long as we are together</em><br/>
<em>There’s no place I’d rather be”</em><br/>
<strong>Rather Be - Clean Bandit Ft. Jess Glynne</strong> </p>
</blockquote><p>It was wednesday morning when Lee walked into the library looking for a book he needed for his class the next day, something about biochemistry had said his professor. He went to the second floor, walking to the sports section, hoping the books were still there, sometimes his classmates took them out instead of reading the stuff in the library and putting them back in its place, messing with his studying schedule. Thankfully, there was one book left in the shelf, he grabbed it and went looking for a table to sit and read.</p><p>In one of the last tables he spotted two familiar shades of hair, the perks of having a large group of friends was that there was always at least one of them in the library, saving everyone else the trouble of finding an empty table in the busy place.</p><p>His friends were sleeping when he got there, it wasn’t unusual to find Kiba taking a nap in the library, and now that Naruto was here, he was following his friend’s steps.</p><p>“My dear friends, how nice to find you here recharging your batteries for the rest of the day” greeted Lee, while taking one of the empty seats.</p><p>Both got startled, waking up and turning to him, with tired eyes. Kiba yawned.</p><p>“Dude, keep it down” mumbled Naruto.</p><p>“Yeah there is people trying to sleep here, have some respect” added Kiba, going back to sleep. His head resting on his backpack.</p><p>Lee smiled and opened his book to start studying, but Naruto got closer to take a look at him.</p><p>“What are you doing?”</p><p>“I’m going to study”</p><p>“Man, every day I discover new things about this major” pouted Naruto “I can’t believe I have to take biochemistry in the future”</p><p>Lee frowned “What did you think sports was about when you applied for it?”</p><p>Naruto hesitated “Exercise?”</p><p>“Of course, it has a lot to do with it, but it’s also about other stuff, learning about the way our body works and how to take care of it when exercising, what’s best for every type of body, it’s even about nutrition. Sports is a whole world and that’s why it’s the most youthful major in this university” Lee was passionate about everything, but sports held a special place to his heart since it was through it that he met his hero, Might Guy, the most incredible athlete he had ever met.</p><p>“I hate college” mumbled Naruto before going back to sleep.</p><p>“That’s not very youthful of you, my friend” reprimanded Lee. His eyes went back to the book in front of him.</p><p>He was going through the second page when he started to feel someone was watching him, at first he didn’t pay any mind, but after a few minutes he turned to his right to find Gaara sitting a few tables away, he was alone even though a few people were standing at the entrance, waiting for a place to seat. The redhead weaved at him before pointing at the empty chair beside Kiba. Lee nodded and watched him gather his stuff before going to sit with him.</p><p>“Thank you” he said before sitting down.</p><p>“No problem, my dear Gaara” smiled Lee “Didn’t see you when I got here, I would’ve sat with you”</p><p>“You went straight to your friends, don’t worry”</p><p>“Why were you sitting alone? Haven’t made any friends yet?”</p><p>Gaara shrugged “People tend to find me intimidating”</p><p>“Intimidating?! But you are one of the nicest persons I know!” Lee frowned, not understanding what his friend was saying.</p><p>“I’m sure when they get to know me, I will make some friends” reassured Gaara.</p><p>“Nonsense, don’t forget we” he pointed at his sleeping friends “are your friends”</p><p>“I will keep it in mind” smiled Gaara, opening his laptop to start on his homework.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>“I still don’t understand why don’t you just talk to her”</p><p>“Is not that easy!” claimed Choji “She’s kind of intimidating”</p><p>“Every woman is intimidating”</p><p>“Not Hinata”</p><p>“Except Hinata” echoed Ino “Naruto is a lucky guy”</p><p>Choji nodded “Anyway, I share every single class with her, I don’t want it to be awkward if she says no”</p><p>“Then don’t ask her!” snapped Ino while rolling her eyes “Just try to be his friend. See if you click, and then you can ask her”</p><p>They were passing the science faculty, Ino’s building was one of the last ones when entering through the first parking lot, she had to walk ten minutes every day from the bus stop to her faculty. Chouji’s faculty on the other hand, was one of the first ones, but still his friend accompanied her every time they got there at the same time.</p><p>Her dad met Chouji’s and Shikamaru’s fathers in college, and had managed to stay friends since then. Then, she met Chouji when she was like two days old, according to their parents’ story. They hopped their kids would follow the ‘Ino-Shika-Cho’ tradition of being best friends for life, and to make sure it happened they planned their vacations together, and made them go to the same school since kindergarten. It was only matter of time before Chouji, Shikamaru and her found themselves doing everything together, and not because their dads planned it, but because they enjoyed each other’s company.</p><p>“It’s been so long since I tried to make new friends… I’m not even sure I can do that!” her friend was having a mental breakdown, which usually meant he was going to star stress eating at any moment. “Man, I could use some chips right now”</p><p>She put her hand on his shoulder “Chouji, out of all our friends, you are the kindest one, to make friends you just need to be who you usually are”</p><p>He smiled “Thank you, Ino, I often forget how nice you are when we are alone”</p><p>She frowned “I’m always nice!”</p><p>Chouji shrugged “Sure”</p><p>“I stand corrected, you’re not the kindest friend I have” They got to her building before he could say another word. Ino turned to leave but something caught her eye. Not far away from them, in the next building, Shikamaru was talking to a woman, a blond one. “Chouji!” whispered Ino, grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him to the closest three she could find, just a few steps behind them.</p><p>Chouji went willingly but yelped “You are hurting me, Ino”</p><p>She looked at her hand, tightly grabbing his arm, and quickly let him go. “I’m sorry Chouji! But look” she pointed at their friend “Shikamaru is talking to some woman!”</p><p>He followed her finger and came to see what she was talking about. He frowned, Shikamaru hadn’t mentioned anything about her “You think they are dating?”</p><p>“I don’t think so, I mean, he would have told us, right? We are his best friends”</p><p>“He did hide from us Hitomi had broken up with him the first days” pointed Chouji.</p><p>“That bastard!” remembered Ino.</p><p>“Her hair looks familiar”</p><p>Ino nodded “I know! But I can’t see her face from here, and her back isn’t telling us much, except for the fact that she has a nice ass”</p><p>“She does”</p><p>Ino slapped him in the head “That’s no way to talk about your friends’ girlfriend”</p><p>“But you said it first” argued Chouji, his hand rubbing where she had hit him.</p><p>“I’m a woman, I can appreciate other girls’ bodies”</p><p>Chouji rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. They spend a few minutes there until their friend started to walk away, and the girl he had been with made her way into the other direction, still turning her back on them.</p><p>“Shit!” exclaimed Chouji, starting to walk away “I’m late!”</p><p>Ino looked at her phone only to realize she was late too “Second week and I’m already late, fucking great” and started to run to her classroom.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>“I’m so fucking hungry!” complained Tenten.</p><p>The line for the cafeteria was endless and Tenten hadn’t had any breakfast. Turns out staying up late on school nights wasn’t one of her finest ideas, but she did it anyway, uncappable of turning off the TV before 3 am.</p><p>“Maybe we could check the subway in front of the physics building” reasoned Hinata.</p><p>“That’s on the other side of the campus” whined Tenten. But taking another look at the line she sighed and started to walk away. “I hate wednesdays”</p><p>“Is it for the crowded cafeteria?”</p><p>“Partly. I wouldn’t be eating this late if I had any free periods before 2 pm”</p><p>Hinata nodded “You should bring a few snacks to eat between classes”</p><p>“I usually do! I just woke up really late today”</p><p>They passed the sports fields, Hinata trying to find Naruto although she knew it was impossible to locate him with the amounts of people playing around.</p><p>“I wonder if Naruto and Lee are playing around in one of the fields” said Tenten, although her gaze was fixed in one of the tables ahead of them, close to the business faculty. She recognized one of their friends sitting there. “Sasuke!” she called, the guy in question turned to them and she waved at him. “Come eat with us!”</p><p>Sasuke looked down at his book, he had been studying for his next class. He contemplated his options, and after a moment packed his stuff and went to them.</p><p>“Where are you going?” he asked.</p><p>“Subway” answered Hinata “The cafeteria was full”</p><p>He nodded and they made their way to the science faculty, chatting along the way about their plans for the weekend; Tenten wanted to go camping, and she had been nagging her friends to come with her since they got back from Konoha, but everyone claimed it was still too hot to stay away from their precious air conditioning.</p><p>“I don’t like being sticky with sweat” had said Hinata when she told them the day at the beach.</p><p>Sasuke, on the other hand, was planning on taking a plane to Osaka to surprise his brother for his birthday, but it wasn’t sure yet as Itachi often travelled outside the country in business trips, it didn’t matter what day it was. They hadn’t seen each other in almost two months, since the beginning of summer vacation, when Sasuke had travelled to Osaka to spend a few days with him. After that his brother had been so busy with the new branch of the family business that Sasuke decided to go spend the rest of the summer in Konoha with his friends.</p><p>Hinata wanted nothing more than to spend her weekend with Naruto, maybe have a picnic or something like that, as long as it was with him, she didn’t care. She had waited so long for him to notice she was in love with him that after getting together she spent every minute of her free time with her boyfriend.</p><p>They made it to the small food place only to notice it was as full as the cafeteria, with three people waiting outside, and five in line inside.</p><p>“Are you kidding me?!” squealed Tenten, her hands on her hips, which meant she was seriously mad. “Aren’t there anymore fucking food places in this fucking campus or why is everything so full?!”</p><p>“It’s lunch time” stated Sasuke, like it was obvious.</p><p>“So what?! Even if its lunch time there should be enough space for everyone to eat without having to wait an hoꟷ”</p><p>“Neji is almost next in line” blurted Hinata, before Tenten could finish her speech.</p><p>Sasuke and Tenten got closer to the window. There, just one person away from being the next in line was none other than Neji Hyuga. She smiled and turned to her friends.</p><p>“Ok, new plan: tell me what you want and I will make Neji order it” she dragged her phone out of its place in her back pocket and unlocked it, ready to take note.</p><p>Her friends told her what they wanted and she proceeded to enter the place, ignoring the people complaining about it. After breaking through the crowd, she arrived with her friend, throwing a hand on his shoulders.</p><p>“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my gorgeous Neji, the next heir of the Hyuga company, the most handsome man I've laid my eyes on, the loꟷ”</p><p>“What do you want?” groaned Neji, his eyes, a light lilac, pinned to hers. She hadn’t notice she was this close to him.</p><p>She quickly pulled away and used the smile that often got her anything she wanted when it came to guys “I’m hungry and this place is full” she pouted “Could you order for us? That way we can eat together” she added, hoping that would made him say yes.</p><p>He frowned “Order for us?”</p><p>“Hinata and Sasuke are waiting outside too” she explained.</p><p>Neji sighed “Fine, but wait here so you can order what they want”</p><p>She nodded. A big, genuine smile on her lips.</p><p>The person in front of them finished making his subway and went to pay, meaning they could order now. Tenten read the note on her phone, making sure not to forget anything her friends asked for, then proceeded to make her own, asking for every single thing on the counter. Finally, Neji made his and both went to the cashier.</p><p>She had forgotten to ask Sasuke and Hinata for money, so she opened her bag to get her wallet and pay for their food too, but apparently, she only had five dollars in it.</p><p>“I hate wednesdays” she cried, turning to Neji, who was paying for his food. She grabbed his t-shirt, tugging it.</p><p>The Hyuga turned “What?”</p><p>“I just have five dollars” she mumbled, pointedly avoiding his eyes.</p><p>He sighed and turned to the cashier “I’m paying for hers too”</p><p>The pretty girl behind the counter eyed her, frowning a little, before turning to him and nodding. She handed him the food and smiled at him “See you around”.</p><p>They exited the restaurant and found their friends sitting in a table under a tree, close to the science faculty.</p><p>“That girl was eyeing you the whole time!” smirked Tenten.</p><p>“How would you know?”</p><p>“Because I saw her” she said, stating the obvious.</p><p>“You saw wrong” pointed Neji.</p><p>They made it to the table, Sasuke and Hinata were talking about something they didn’t catch.</p><p>“Hello cousin” greeted Hinata. Sasuke just nodded.</p><p>“Here is your food” he put the bags in the table before sitting, making space for Tenten to sit beside him.</p><p>She plopped down and quickly got her sub out of the bag, opening the paper and taking a big bite. She moaned “I was so hungry” her mouth was full but it didn’t stop her from speaking.</p><p>“We can see that” smirked Sasuke, opening his own sub.</p><p>“Some of us didn’t have time to eat breakfast” explained her to Neji, who was giving her odd looks.</p><p>“Thank you, cousin” said Hinata before opening her sub.</p><p>“How much do I owe you?” asked Sasuke, putting down his sub and grabbing his wallet.</p><p>“Is nothing, you can buy me something later”</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>When Sakura was little her parents used to take her on camping trips all the time, since Konoha was surrounded with an enormous forest. It was fun and she got to spend quality time with her parents without the continuous calls from the hospital. That’s why when Tenten proposed to go camping she immediately said yes.</p><p>Sadly, that was not everyone’s reaction. That’s how she found herself trying to convince the rest of her friends to go with them.</p><p>“I don’t understand why you guys don’t want to go!” barked Sakura, her arms crossed over her chest.</p><p>“There’s no wi-fi there, how am I supposed to entertain my followers if I have no internet?” blurted Ino, profusely tapping on her phone, as if to prove a point.</p><p>“I have…” began Shino “…work to do” the big glasses covering his eyes didn’t give anything away.</p><p>“That’s obviously a lie!” objected Tenten from her place by the blackboard. They had reunited them in the library, it was almost empty since it was thursday night. So far five of them had showed up.</p><p>“You can’t prove it” pointed Shino, a smirk on his face.</p><p>“I just really don’t want to go” stated Shikamaru, no emotion whatsoever showing in his face.</p><p>“I don’t like being sweaty” mumbled Hinata, playing with her fingers, as she did when she was nervous.</p><p>“Come one guys! It will be fun!” begged Sakura “We can share scary stories, make smores, enjoy nature, and we get to do it together! Wouldn’t it be fun to spend some quality time with your friends?!”</p><p>She was begging at this point, but she would do what she had to. They couldn’t go alone into some unknown forest, let alone make it there if they had no car.</p><p>Sasuke, Naruto and Lee walked in, apparently they had just gotten out of class.</p><p>“Oh! Is this about the camping trip?” asked Lee, reading the blackboard.</p><p>Tenten nodded, eyes full of hope.</p><p>“Count me in! My dear friends imagine how youthful it will be to spend a weekend among nature!”</p><p>“That’s the attitude!” exclaimed Sakura.</p><p>“I’m going too!” hollered Naruto, giving the girls a thumbs up at the same time Hinata pouted.</p><p>“Yas, gurl! I guess that means Hinata is coming too” stated Tenten, writing their names in the board. “And since Hinata is going, Neji can’t say no!” she wrote his name too.</p><p>Ino grumbled “Ugh fine! I can’t be home alone all weekend, count me in too”</p><p>“Sai is going too!” said Naruto, typing away on his phone “Just texted him about it”</p><p>“Keep ‘em coming guys I still have a lot of space in the board” sang Tenten, triumphant smile on her face.</p><p>“Ok so we’re missing” Sakura went over the names on the board “five people!” she turned to Shino, Shikamaru and Sasuke “Can you guys stop being this dumb and just say yes? Please”</p><p>Sasuke shrugged “Don’t look at me, I was going to say yes anyway”</p><p>“Weren’t you visiting Itachi?” asked Tenten.</p><p>“Business trip” he hummed.</p><p>“Shikamaru, if I’m going then so are you” hissed Ino “I’m not going through this nightmare alone”</p><p>Kiba walked in, a small dog sleeping in his arms “What’s up guys?”</p><p>“Why are you carrying a dog?” asked Shino.</p><p>“He’s sick, I volunteer to take him home so he wouldn’t spend the night alone in a cage”</p><p>“We can’t have another dog!” claimed Shino “I can barely keep the place clean with you two” he pointed at Lee and Kiba “and Akamaru!”</p><p>“Calm down dude, it’s just for today” stated Kiba “Why are we here anyways?”</p><p>“Camping trip!” cheered Lee.</p><p>Kiba hollered “Nice! Akamaru has been crying lately, maybe this will be good for him”</p><p>Tenten wrote his name. “Which leave us…” she turned to face the only ones left “You two! Say yes, you can’t be the only ones left out”</p><p>“What about Chouji? Haven’t hear him say yes, he isn’t even here” pointed out Shikamaru.</p><p>“How do you think we are getting there, dumbass?” deadpanned Tenten.</p><p>Sakura opened her eyes in surprise, she didn’t know Chouji had already said yes.</p><p>Shikamaru sighed “Fine… but I’m not going to enjoy it. How troublesome”</p><p>“Fine” repeated Shino.</p><p>“Yas!” the girls erupted, forgetting for a moment they were in a library. A ‘shhhh’ came from the librarian’s area and they shut up.</p><p>“We leave tomorrow at…” Sakura checked her phone, going through everyone’s school schedule “six! Ok?”</p><p>“It’s almost a two hours ride from Chouji’s house to the part of the mountain where we can camp, so please be there on time” added Tenten “We really don’t want to be setting up the tents without any sunlight”</p><p>“If I have to wait for you like last time, I’m canceling the trip” added Shikamaru.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Do you remember that day?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Guess who is back, back again? heh<br/>First of all i want to say i wanted to change the style of this story, but i dont have the time yet so we'll have to stick with this one util i get enough time off to change the whole thing.<br/>Second, i'm sorry it takes me so long to update this story, but life and other things really do get in the way! and when i have time to write i have like a million ideas in my head and i end up putting those down before coming to this one *cries in im sorry*<br/>Anyway lets get this baby going and i hope ill get time to fix it soon.<br/>See you soon!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
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  <p>
    <em>“Do you remember that day?</em><br/>
<em>(That sunny day)</em><br/>
<em>When you first came my way”</em><br/>
<strong>Right Back Where We Started From ꟷ Maxine Nightingale</strong></p>
</blockquote><p>Shikamaru was about to finish packing the food for the camp trip, just as Chouji had asked him to before going upstairs to take a shower, when there was a knock on the door. He placed the last package of marshmallows in the chest cooler and cleaned his hands before going to open the door.</p><p>“About damn time you got hꟷ” he trailed off. Behind the door stood Temari and her brothers, backpacks and a camping tent in hand.</p><p>“What’s up dude?” greeted Kankuro, making his way into the house “We are the first ones to get here?” asked him, looking around.</p><p>He nodded, not understanding what they were doing in his house “Are you… going too?”</p><p>“Kankuro said you guys invited us” stated Temari, eyeing him.</p><p>He smiled, trying to recover from his initial surprise “Sure, sure. Please make yourselves at home, I’m going to get my stuff down” he unplugged his phone from its place in the table and went upstairs, going straight into Chouji’s room “Did anyone invite Temari and her brothers?”</p><p>Chouji frowned “Who?”</p><p>“The siblings from Suna”</p><p>“Ah! Kiba invited Kankuro earlier today, in the group chat” explained Chouji “you would know if you bothered to at least check it out”</p><p>“My phone was charging” explained him, already on his way to the door “Anyway, I’m going to start packing the stuff in the bus. Hurry up” he went to grab his backpack from his room and headed downstairs, knocking on Neji’s door on his way down “Hurry up, we should leave soon!”.</p><p>Temari was reading a book when he got back, Kankuro was going through his phone and Gaara was eyeing the pictures in the wall. He grabbed the keys from the wall by the door and opened the bus ꟷIt looked out of place parked on the driveway, compared to the other cars on the street. On the back of the bus was a rear ladder, which was often used to get to the roof, were a roof rack carrier was placed.</p><p>“Can you guys give me a hand?” asked Shikamaru.</p><p>The siblings nodded and grabbed their stuff, following Shikamaru outside. He climbed through the read ladder and kneeled down on the roof, grabbing the camping tent Kankuro was handing him. Chouji and Neji got out of the house carrying the chest cooler with the food; it took all of their strength to get it to the roof, Kankuro having to climb up to help Shikamaru.</p><p>Ino and the rest of the girls were the next ones to arrive, carrying another camping tent with them and probably more backpacks than necessary, although most of them belonged to Ino ‘In case we get lost and they can’t find us soon enough’ she had said when Chouji asked her about it. Tenten and Sakura were excited, handing everyone bandanas ‘For the group photo’ deadpanned Tenten when Neji asked.</p><p>“We are here!” screamed Naruto, barely out of his house a few meters away. He ignored his roommate’s cries of help and ran to the bus “Can’t wait to get out of the city for a few days man”</p><p>“Don’t worry Naruto, we got this” growled Sai, carrying the chest cooler from their house. They passed it to Kankuro and Shikamaru, it weighted more than the one with the food.</p><p>“What is in here?” panted Kankuro, tying up everything together.</p><p>“Beer” yawned Sasuke.</p><p>Shino’s car made its way through the street and parked in front of their neighbor’s house, meaning it was time to leave. After packing the rest of the stuff where they could, everyone hopped in and Chouji took his place as the driver.</p><p>“Ready for an amazing weekend?” asked Tenten, the designated leader of the trip.</p><p>“Let’s get going!” yelled Kiba from his place at the back of the bus, Akamaru barked from his place behind Tenten at the front of the bus.</p><p>Shikamaru didn’t know how, but he found himself sitting next to Temari after her brothers ditched her for Kiba and Lee. He didn’t have time to scan her over when she first got to his house, and he found himself eyeing her from the corner of his eye. She was wearing black shorts and a purple t-shirt, unfortunately he also noted she wasn’t wearing a bra, and her nipples could be seen through her clothes. It didn’t seem to bother her thought. Her eyes were trapped in the book she had been reading since she arrived earlier, not noticing he was checking her out. Or maybe she was good at hiding that kind of stuff. He kept his eyes on her for a few seconds and then travelled through the bus, most of his friends were talking to their seat partners while others were sleeping, maybe he would take a nap too.</p><p>“Excited for the trip?” she asked when they had been on the bus for a good half an hour.</p><p>His eyes were closed but he wasn’t sleeping “I didn’t want to come”</p><p>“Me neither” she chuckled.</p><p>Noticing he wouldn’t be able to sleep, his eyes fluttered open and he turned his head in order to face her “Then why are you here?”</p><p>“I could ask you the same question” she pointed.</p><p>“Touché. I’m just here to avoid getting yelled at by Ino”</p><p>“I’m here to stop those two” she pointed at her brothers “from getting killed by some crazy person in the forest”</p><p>“Seems like we are both here for shitty reasons” smirked Shikamaru.</p><p>“God gives his worst battles to his best warriors” she mocked.</p><p>“Shikamaru” mumbled Neji behind him.</p><p>He turned to face him, Neji was sitting in the other row of seats of the bus, Shino by his side. Shikamaru raised his eyebrows.</p><p>“Did you bring the shogi board?”</p><p>He nodded “How else are we supposed to survive this weekend?”</p><p>“You play shogi?” asked Temari.</p><p>He frowned “You too?”</p><p>“It’s one of Gaara’s favorite games, and since Kankuro finds it boring I’m stuck playing with him” she smiled “I learned to love it”</p><p>“It’s not my fault that game is so boring!” meddled Kankuro, closing in from his place behind them.</p><p>“Careful dude” warned Kiba “You are surrounded by the residence grandpas of the group” he threw a look around as in to show him.</p><p>“Shogi is not a game for old people, it requires intelligence” pointed Shino “Maybe that has something to do with the fact that you don’t like”</p><p>“I agree with him” added Gaara, he was sitting beside Shikamaru, in the next row with Lee.</p><p>“Shut up” Kankuro frowned at his little brother.</p><p>“Don’t fight” warned Temari.</p><p>Gaara turned to Shikamaru “I would like to play with you, if you don’t mind”</p><p>“Sure, the more the merrier”</p><p>“Maybe one of you will be able to beat him” hoped Neji.</p><p>“He’s the resident winner” explained Kiba when Temari frowned.</p><p>“Let’s not forget our dear Shikamaru was named the national champion of shogi three years ago” beamed Lee “It feels like yesterday we were cheering for him at school while he was playing in Osaka”</p><p>“I still remember the teachers cutting classes short so we could see his matches” smirked Kiba “Man, I miss high school”</p><p>“You were a national champion?” asked Gaara, surprised “You must be really good”</p><p>“Good? Shikamaru is more than good” began Naruto, apparently the conversation had interest him “The guy is a genius, if it weren’t for him being as lazy as he is, he would have graduated years ago”</p><p>“True” added Ino, sitting in front of Gaara, along with Sakura “He started crying when the principal said he would skip a few grades since he already knew everything they were teaching us”</p><p>“That’s not true” growled Shikamaru, he hated when his friend tried to make fun of his younger self “I didn’t want to skip grades because it would be troublesome to try and make new friends”</p><p>“Sure, sure” dismissed Ino “Whatever you say, big guy”</p><p>“You have all been friends since you were little?” asked Kankuro.</p><p>“Not quite” denied Sakura, frowning a little, apparently trying to picture when everyone started to be friends “I think it was around middle school?” she turned to Ino, question mark on her face.</p><p>Her friend shook her head “Of course not! Damn it, forehead, you are supposed to be the smart one out of the two of us” she complained, then grabbed her phone, looking for something “Ah!” she pointed her screen so everyone could see it, there was a picture of an old picture of three babies “This is me with Chouji and Shikamaru when we were less than a year old I think, our parents met in college so we pretty much grew up together” she ran her finger across the screen, a picture of her with a pink-haired girl came next “I met Sakura in elementary school, I think it was around our second year, and we introduced our friends” she threw Shikamaru a look, asking him if she was right.</p><p>He sighed “Yes, Sakura brought along Sasuke and Naruto and we started to hang out together, a few months later, I think it was the same year of school, Kiba and Shino came along, but I don’t remember how” he frowned, trying to think about that time in his life.</p><p>“It was the same year” nodded Shino “Kiba and I had been friends since kindergarten, but we met you guys during one of teacher Anko’s trips to the Konoha forest”</p><p>“I remember that” exclaimed Kiba “good times, good times”</p><p>“Then we met you in high school” pointed Neji.</p><p>“We were all in the volleyball team, we were such youthful souls!” cried Lee.</p><p>“Tenten and I were friends with Lee and my cousin Neji” muttered Hinata, speaking for the first time since the conversation had started.</p><p>Neji nodded “We brought them along with us when we started to hang out with them”</p><p>“Finally,” added Sakura “Tenten introduced us to Sai, although I’m not sure how they met. It was not long ago, during our last year of high school, I think” she turned to the front of the bus, were the rest of their friends were talking “Sai, Tenten, how did you guys meet?”</p><p>Tenten stopped what she was saying to the other boys and turned to them. She kept quiet for a bit “I think it was during a school project”</p><p>Sai smiled “Yes, I used to transfer a lot” he explained “During my last year of high school I transferred to yours and met Tenten when we were paired for a school project”</p><p>“And then you decided to go the same university?” questioned Temari.</p><p>“We didn’t decide it” drawled Sasuke from his place besides Sai “It’s more like a tradition, for people in Konoha, to attend Tokyo University if you want to leave home” he explained.</p><p>“But it’s not like there’s a lot of options there anyway, Konoha is not a really big city” said Ino.</p><p>Sakura agreed “The college in Konoha only has a few majors, but nothing too extravagant, most of the time people just come here cause it’s not that far from home and the school is good”</p><p>“What about you?” asked Shino to the three siblings sitting among them.</p><p>“We just followed Temari here” shrugged Kankuro.</p><p>“Yeah, like you would be doing much back in Suna” muttered his sister.</p><p>“Suna is not a big city, either” explained Gaara, cutting in before his siblings started to fight “Temari wanted to study medicine here, so we followed her”</p><p>“So, you are the oldest out of the three?” asked Hinata.</p><p>She nodded “Yeah, Gaara is the little one and Kankuro the sandwich”</p><p>“But I though you said this was Kankuro’s first semester here” frowned Sakura.</p><p>“It is. I waited a year for Gaara to finish high school back in Suna so we could come together” said Kankuro.</p><p>“And I waited a year too, before coming here, that’s why this is my third semester” added Temari, eyeing Shikamaru.</p><p>His mind went back to their first conversation, when she had told him to mind his own business.</p><p>They kept talking for a bit, everyone apparently curious about their newest addition to the group, until Chouji stopped the bus. They had made it out of the city and were now in a gas station. The sun was beginning to set, which made him wonder if they would made it to the camping place before the moon raised. The traffic had been worse than they had expected, but that was their own fault since they didn’t take into account it was friday, after all.</p><p>“I’m going to pee” announced Chouji “if you want to buy something this is your last chance!”</p><p>He got down and made his way to the small store in front of the bus, a few of his friends went down but Shikamaru decided to stay and take a nap before the noises began again. Beside him, Temari went back to her book, the sun reflecting on her golden hair, up in a half ponytail, making it shine even more.</p><p>His eyes roamed the bus, it was actually the first time they used it to go out of the city, apart from the time Chouji drove it from Konoha a few weeks back. He knew his friend wouldn’t bring his precious bus into the woods if he didn’t know the car could take it, but it still bothered him. The last thing he wanted was to end up trapped in the woods with a bunch of people to take care of. Troublesome.</p><p>A few minutes later, his friends got back and the bus took off again.</p><p>He must had fallen asleep soon after that because next thing he knew they were in the middle of the woods. It was dark outside. Tenten and Chouji were arguing somewhere in the bus, though he couldn’t really make their figures in the darkness.</p><p>“What’s going on?” he groaned, his mind still half asleep. His right side was being pushed with the weight of what he presumed was a sleeping Temari.</p><p>“Shhh” hissed Tenten.</p><p>He tried to locate the place the voice came from, which was the front of the bus.</p><p>“Shikamaru!” urged Chouji, voice barely audible from his place.</p><p>“What?” he grabbed his phone and turned the screen on, everyone around him appeared to be asleep, he carefully laid Temari against the window and went to meet his friends, making sure he didn’t trip over the stuff on the floor.</p><p>Chouji was in the driver’s seat, while Tenten was squatting beside him. Akamaru was lying down beside her, his eyes focused on them.</p><p>“We are lost” said Tenten as soon as he was close enough to hear her.</p><p>He frowned, squatting next to them “What do you mean we are lost?”</p><p>“I mean we are lost, as in we don’t know where we are, as in MIA” deadpanned Tenten, her face was a mix between anger and concern.</p><p>“I understand that part, the part as to HOW we got lost is what I’m having trouble understanding. I thought you knew this place!”</p><p>“I had a map! But Chouji wouldn’t listen to me and when I fell asleep, he apparently missed the signs” she mumbled, looking angrily at Chouji.</p><p>“I didn’t miss the signs, I followed them just as you said!”</p><p>A low snore was heard from the back of the bus. Shikamaru quickly turned off his phone screen, checking the time in the process “Listen, is already 8:30 pm, we were supposed to arrive half an hour ago. I say we camp here and resume searching tomorrow, it will be easy to find the way back if we can actually see things”</p><p>“And what are we supposed to do now? We can unpack everything in the dark just to pack it right back when the sun raises” pointed Tenten.</p><p>“We are not doing that, we will sleep right here in the bus” explained Shikamaru, turning on the lamp on his phone and pointing it to his friends asleep all over the bus “They are already sleeping, they won’t even notice until tomorrow”</p><p>Chouji nodded “If you think so”</p><p>“And you two” he pointed at them “go to sleep too before I lose my cool and kill you both for getting us into this situation. And make sure Akamaru gets enough time to pee outside”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When Naruto opened his eyes, the sunlight was directly on his face. The last thing he remembered was stopping at the gas station where he had gone to the bathroom, and then back in the bus Hinata had demanded him to go to sleep before he burst everyone’s eardrums with his screams.</p><p>His girlfriend was sleeping peacefully, her head against the window, using her jacket as a pillow. His watch said it was only 6:15am, but he didn’t understand what they were doing sleeping on the bus, and why they didn’t make it to the camping place.</p><p>Outside the bus he spotted Shikamaru and Tenten arguing over something, probably about the map she was holding against his chest. He stretched his limbs and made his way outside, if anyone knew what was happening it was probably them.</p><p>“Guys why didn’t we get to the camping place yesterday?”</p><p>His friends turned to him, Tenten gapped while Shikamaru kept a straight face. “We are lost” he mumbled.</p><p>“<em>lost?!</em>” he yelled, glancing around his two friends.</p><p>Tenten quickly stomped her hand over his mouth “Shhh! Dumbass, you are going to wake them!”</p><p>He removed her hand “Why are we lost?” he started to look at their surroundings, apart from a few trees the place was mostly plain ground, not much to distinguish where they were, except for the forest he could spot a few miles away. There weren't even tire marks on the ground “We are definitely lost” agreed Naruto.</p><p>“I say we wake everyone up and see what we can do, the sooner we start to look around the better” stated Shikamaru.</p><p>Tenten whined “They are going to blame <em>me</em> for this”</p><p>“It kind of is your fault” pointed Shikamaru, making his way to the bus.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My tumblr if you want to come and say hi, or yell at me, or anything really: happy-shinee.tumblr.com</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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